


Iron Webs

by Moonlightsplash



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 14:00:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12936783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlightsplash/pseuds/Moonlightsplash
Summary: Post Civil War AU.  Turns out that Tony Stark needed more help than he thought to recover from the Civil War.





	Iron Webs

**Author's Note:**

> Peter Parker is eighteen in this story. I don't like how the MCU took him back to his childhood. I watched webs grow up and I don't want to see him go backwards. :) Oh, Genius! Peter is a real thing. The guy is brilliant and I like to keep it that way. Anyway, this idea popped into my head.
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer-Marvel owns all rights related to Spider-Man.

Tony Stark stared up at the ceiling of his hospital room, stuck doing nothing but thinking about how everyone left him again. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, they always left. The physical pain he was in was nothing compared to the emotional pain he was struggling with. This time… This time, they not only left him, but they actively betrayed him. Just the memory of it burned…

“Boss? Peter Parker is at the front desk of the hospital and asking about you. Do you want me to clear him for admittance?” FRIDAY asked.

Tony blinked as he pulled his thoughts back together. “Peter is?”

“He is, boss.”

“Send him up then.”

He steeled himself for yet more harsh words. He’d hauled the guy to Germany after all and got him entangled in his own personal disaster. By the time Peter made it up to his room, he’d managed to work himself into quite the state. He braced himself when he heard the knock on the door.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter’s voice floated through the door. “Is it okay if I come in?”

“It is.” He got out, his voice a bit hoarse. His eyes were glued to the door as it swung open and Peter stuck his head around, smiling at him.

“I can’t believe I got in to see you!” Peter said cheerfully, his ever present backpack hanging from his hand. He closed the door behind him and Tony couldn’t quit staring at him, searching for any sign of disgust or hatred or… well anything that would tell him how much trouble he was in with Peter. The guy was enhanced. Maybe he’d finish the job Rogers started.

The backpack settled to the ground next to the chair and Peter walked over to his bed still smiling, although it faded the longer he looked at him.

“Mr. Stark…?” He said a bit hesitantly. “I…” Peter closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Did Rogers do this to you?”

Tony grimaced but nodded and Peter’s face lost color. “Peter, it’s not like I wasn’t giving as good as I got.”

Peter shook his head. “No. I saw the news and they had a bit of the story. It was two against one, Mr. Stark. More to the point, you trusted Rogers.” Peter took a steadying breath. “I’m going to hug you, sir. Just so you know.”

“What?!” Tony squawked as Peter’s arms carefully wrapped around his shoulders and he rested his head in the crook of his neck. “P-Peter…!” He struggled to get out as that simple human contact crushed the wall he’d built to bury his emotions. In only a few seconds, he was crying. Looking back on it later, he wished he could say it was a manly cry, but it wasn’t. He sobbed his heart out, all the tangled mess of emotions he’d been battling with pouring out of him in a wave of grief.

He cried for nearly 15 minutes before his tears finally slowed. His one working arm slowly released Peter from the death grip he’d had him in and Peter had pulled away. He returned in seconds with a glass of water and a damp washcloth. Tony took the washcloth and cleaned his face up as best he could before sitting it to the side and grabbing the glass of water. Peter set it to the side as soon as he was finished, before grabbing his chair and carrying it next to the bed. He settled into it comfortably, tossing his backpack up next to Tony on the bed as he grabbed his hand.

Tony found his words gone as Peter dug through his backpack and pulled out an old tablet computer, flicking through files one handed. He could only watch and hang onto Peter’s hand tightly, rather horrified at how desperately he needed that simple human contact. Peter finally seemed happy and turned the tablet to face him.

“See this? I think I can finally make my web shooters waterproof! What do you think? They work okay in light rain, but man, get caught in a downpour and they’re out until they dry out again.”

It was slow, but ever so patiently, Peter managed to get him talking again. He’d stop every once in a while and make notes on his schematic for suggestions Tony had. Peter had just finished typing up yet another idea, when he asked a quiet question.

“What kind of damage are you looking at, Tony?”

He jumped, but Peter kept a firm hold of his hand. 

“I’m not asking you to hurt you. I’m trying to figure out if I should offer. I mean, you already had a damaged heart, didn’t you? This couldn’t be good.”

Tony let his eyes drift up to the ceiling. “It’s not. Good that is. I’m down to 39% function on my heart and I’m looking at a short life of being mostly stuck in bed.”

“They can’t fix it with surgery?”

Tony shook his head and Peter sighed. “Man, life kicks you in the head more than it does me and I didn’t think ANYONE had worse luck than I do!” He laid the tablet down and grabbed Tony’s hand with both of his. “What’s your blood type?”

Startled, Tony dropped his gaze back to Peter. “What?”

“Your blood type? What is it?”

“AB-.”

“So am I.”

Tony blinked as Peter held his gaze, his mind struggling to come up with the reason for the question. His breath suddenly hissed out. “Oh my god! You have enhanced healing, don’t you?”

Peter nodded. “I also have mutated DNA. It would be risky, but maybe… Just maybe if we’re careful it would work for you.” He moved a hand over to his tablet computer and pulled up a different file, holding it up for Tony to see. “My blood versus normal blood. Can FRIDAY review this too?”

“FRY?”

“I’m grabbing the files now, boss.”

“Scroll, Peter!” Tony said, eyes flicking down the page quickly. When he finally finished, he laid his head back on the pillow, mind spinning over possibilities. “FRIDAY?”

“I would suggest that you start slow, boss. No more than a half pint of blood for the first day. Wait for results. Try a larger dose the next day and so on.”

Tony’s hand tightened desperately on Peter’s and he smiled at him. “When’s your doctor due back? I don’t need him to walk in on this.”

“Not until 7pm, Mr. Parker.”

Peter got an odd look on his face. “You mean you’re here alone all day?”

Tony nodded. “I can’t stand the hovering and it’s too risky. Someone could do something while I was out and I’d be slapped with a lawsuit before I knew it.”

“That’s… That’s horrible! Ugh, well FRIDAY? Can you figure out how I can stay with him then? He shouldn’t be alone.”

“I can indeed, Mr. Parker. I’ll take care of it.”

“I don’t need anyone to stay with me!” Tony said quickly. “I’m a grown man!”

“I happened to have noticed that you were already grown up, Tony Stark.” Peter patted his arm gently. “It’s pretty obvious that you’re an adult.”

Tony huffed and Peter dug in his bag, pulling out a medical kit. He quickly withdrew a length of tubing with two needles on it.

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Of course. I’ve been patching myself up for years and Aunt May is a registered nurse. FRIDAY? Can you keep track for me and tell me when to stop?”

“I can, Mr. Parker.”

The whole process went surprisingly quickly and Peter was soon dropping the needles in the biohazard box. He wrapped up the tubing to get rid of later and settled himself back into the chair next to Tony’s bed. 

“Hey FRIDAY? Can I order take-out from a hospital?”

“You can. In fact, the boss has dinner at 7pm when the doc makes his rounds. Would you like me to order you something to arrive then?”

“No, no! I can order it.” Peter said quickly and Tony snorted.

“Do it, FRY. Make sure all his meals are covered while he’s here.”

Peter sighed. “I’m not here to get anything from you Mr. Stark. I just so happen to like you and wanted to make sure you were okay and see if I could help. Actually, I was more worried about YOUR meals. You see, healing requires a ton of food and your doc is not going to want to up your meal plan to help you out.”

“I…” Tony blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“You will when it kicks in, let me tell you. As badly as you’re hurt, you’re going to be ready to eat the bed you’re laying in soon.”

“FRY, plan for it okay?”

“Will do, boss!”

They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting quietly over different projects and Peter called his Aunt to tell her he’d be staying at the hospital. It was nearly midnight when Peter woke hearing someone calling his name.

“Peter? Wake up!”

“Wha’ is it?” He said blearily and blinked his eyes enough to see Tony grinning at him. 

“You’re cute when you’re sleepy. But besides that, I’m STARVING! Please tell me that there’re leftovers or something!”

Peter blinked a couple of times before he shot to his feet. “You’re HUNGRY?!”

“I am!”

He bolted to the tiny in room refrigerator and pulled out the leftovers from dinner, along with a couple bottles of water. He brought the haul back over to the bed and laid it in front of Tony, who set to work devouring everything with a will. He didn’t stop until he ate every single bite, leaning back against his pillows with a sigh of happiness. 

“I didn’t know it was possible to BE that hungry.”

Peter nodded. “I told you! Food is required if you’ve got heal. But… You already look better. FRIDAY?”

“He does, Mr. Parker. His blood pressure is now in the lower end of normal range, his heartbeat is steady and the last scan I took of him showed that the damage to his heart is starting to heal. I’ll have more information by this afternoon, as I’ll have multiple scans, but it may only take one or two more doses to get the boss back on his feet.”

“That and a mountain of food.”

“That, too. I’ll make sure that breakfast takes that into account.”

It actually worked. Two more transfusions over two days and every bit of take out that Peter could get his hands on later, Tony Stark was released from the hospital. The doctors were at a loss to explain how his heart had healed, but none of them could deny the results. An older gentleman brought over a suit to the hospital for him to dress in and Tony tossed a bag at Peter.

“Here. You can change, too. You’ve been with me for days now.”

Peter yawned. “Yeah, but I’m not likely to be surrounded by paparazzi like you are. You HAVE to look good. Me? I’m just a scruffy guy coming out of the hospital.”

Tony pointed to the bag. “CHANGE, scruffy guy! Unless you can tell me otherwise, you’re coming back to the Tower with me. There are some things I want to discuss and frankly, I’m tired of being alone. God, and I’ve got to get something to eat AGAIN!” He added, patting his growling stomach. “I think I’ve eaten more in three days than most of my adult life.”

Peter laughed. “It’s a pain, but it’s worth it.”

“It is. Now get changed! I’m ready to get out of here!”

“Yes, sir!” Peter threw him a salute and opened the garment bag. He sniffed. “Oh, wow! You really CAN smell the money!”

Tony laughed as he pulled his shirt on and started buttoning it up. Even the terrible scars on his chest were fading rapidly. It was un-fuckin-believable. He kept an eye on Peter to make sure he was going to change and nodded in satisfaction when he slipped out of his jeans and pulled on the pants that went with the suit. 

Finally dressed, he turned to see Peter pulling on the suit coat. “I feel over dressed! This is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Nope. Image is everything in this world, Peter. There’s power to be had in controlling how you’re presented.” Peter buttoned up his suit coat and picked up his backpack and garment bag.

“Give me yours. I’ll carry it too. You’re going to have to be free to deal with the photographers.” 

Tony nodded and handed him his garment bag, gesturing for Peter to come with him. One brief stop at the main desk and a poor nurse who nearly had a heart attack when he smiled at her later, Peter followed him out the door into press hell.

FRIDAY had the limo pulled up to the curb, so it was a short walk to the car. He kept Peter close to him and nodded, smiling for the cameras and laughing when a few of them told him he looked good for being near death.

Peter opened the door and he climbed in first before his Spider jumped in, holding his bags in his lap, eyes wide as he pulled the door shut.

“That…” Peter said, pointing back to the mob as FRIDAY pulled them out onto the road. “How the HELL do you deal with that?”

“Practice, Peter. Just like anything else, you’ll get better with practice. FRIDAY? Enrique’s please.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

Tony spent the drive over to his stylist split between arranging for movers to come get all of the Avengers belongings from the Tower and talking to Peter. He didn’t want him to bolt and when they pulled up in front of the stylist, he looked about one second away from leaping for freedom.

Tony frowned and leaned over, putting his hand on Peter’s knee and waiting until he had his attention. “Peter?’

Nervous eyes darted back to him. “I know this is outside of your comfort zone, but I’m serious about wanting you to stay around. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, a certain appearance is required at my level. All I’m trying to do is make sure you don’t feel out of place, okay? Enrique’s is a wonderful salon. No one is going to say anything and in an hour, we’ll be on our way. Deal?”

“But Mr. Stark-…”

“Tony.” He cut in and Peter nodded.

“Tony, I don’t want you to have to be paying for anything. I didn’t stop by to see you, nor did I stay, because of your money. I just like you. You’re funny, sarcastic, smart beyond belief and love technology. You’re the first one I’ve been around who can talk tech for hours. You’re a good guy Tony and it was wrong that you got hurt trying to do the right thing.”

Tony smiled smugly. “You see? That’s why I want you around. Peter? Don’t over think this okay? It’s a haircut. Even if it IS an expensive one.”

He sighed and nodded, both of them climbing out of the limo and Peter followed him inside. The staff knew him well and Enrique soon came rushing out. Tony spent several minutes explaining what he wanted done for Peter and himself. Enrique assured him that they would take good care of them both.

Tony couldn’t help but grin at the sight of Peter sidling up to the salon chair as though it would attack him. He made sure to keep an eye on him throughout the process, but his stylist seemed to have gotten him talking about movies of all things. Peter was chatting with the best of them, animated and smiling as he discussed the next Transformers movie due to come out.

Tony finished up first and took care of their bill before walking back to Peter. He was climbing out of the chair, still talking to Mika, who had done his hair. Enrique was beaming from ear to ear and walked over to Tony. He leaned in and whispered.

“You have an eye for quality, Mr. Stark. The salon will be abuzz for days over this one.”

Tony smirked and nodded before Peter turned to head towards him and his jaw dropped open. All he could do was gape in astonishment. A haircut, shave, a bit of shape to his eyebrows and Peter had gone from a handsome young man to a breathtaking one. He managed to rip his eyes away from Peter to nod to Enrique.

“Most excellent work.”

“Oi, it was already there. We just brought it out.”

“Peter? You ready to go?”

He was next to him in a flash. “You have to ask?”

Tony laughed and urged him to the front, Peter waved one last time to Mika but damn near walked on his heels to get out.

“Whew! You do that every time you need a haircut?” Peter asked him. 

“I do. The results are worth it. I’m going to be beating people off of you with a stick now.” Tony told him. “You look like a different person.”

“A different person? It was a haircut!” Peter said as they got back into the limo.

“But it was a good haircut. Believe me.” He said, giving Peter another appreciative glance. “Frederick’s, FRIDAY.”

“On it, boss.”

They pulled out into traffic once more and Tony fielded two more calls on the drive over. When they pulled up in front of the low stone building his tailor was housed in, Peter looked like he was going to need a bulldozer to move him. 

“Peter?” He said, leaning over and putting his hand behind his neck, urging him to lean forward until their foreheads were touching. He kept them there for a minute. “Now, this is my tailor. We’re going to go in there, get you measured and arrange for him to make you a full wardrobe.”

Peter grimaced and Tony interrupted him.

“No. I’m not doing this because I feel sorry for you or any other weird idea you might have. Peter? I told you before. I want you to hang around. I need a personal assistant, my friend and you fit the bill. To be frank, the thought of being alone is horrifying and you and Rhodey are the only two out there I trust.”

Peter’s nose wrinkled. “But I’ll be going to college in the fall!”

“You still can. Between Rhodey and I we have enough pull to get you through MIT in a distance learning class. You can complete the lab work in my lab and we’ll submit it.”

Peter looked torn and Tony tightened his hold on his neck a bit. “This is what I wanted to talk to you about tonight. I know there are some things we need to work out for you. Right now though, let me get your clothes bought okay? It’s going to take a couple of hours and then we’ll go to the Tower and I’m going to order a damn ton of food to be delivered.”

That got him a bit of a grin and Peter nodded. 

“Good? Let’s go then.”

Inside the building was a bit of England, all dark wood paneling, marble flooring, gold trim and crystal lighting. Frederick himself was there to greet them when they came in and they quickly had Peter rushed over and onto the pedestal to be measured. His spider stayed put and let them put on different jackets and shirts, color swatches draped over him as Tony and Frederick talked over the choices.

Tony actually had to laugh though when Frederick told him he was going to give him a big discount. At his rather startled look, the man had explained quite seriously.

“It’s good advertising. I give you a discount for the same reason. Mr. Parker has a body most would die for. With my clothes on him, making him look even better…? It’s damn good for business.”

“He also embarrasses easily. I’ve got to get that out of him.” Tony said cheerfully. Frederick’s patted his arm carefully.

“I haven’t seen my people this excited since the last time you updated your wardrobe. I can see that the suit we supplied doesn’t fit quite right. I’ve got someone fitting it properly now that he’s here.”

“Thank you.”

Frederick got him settled in a chair near Peter and one of his aides brought out some snacks and wine, but he sent the wine back and asked for water. It did indeed take just over two hours before they were finished and arrangements made to deliver everything to the Tower. As soon as they were back in the limo, Peter sagged against the seat.

“That was worse than fighting the Rhino!”

Tony grinned. “Come on now! You weren’t injured. No one threw a punch. Nothing blew up…”

Peter huffed. “Not injured? Did you not SEE how many needles were flying around in there?!”

He laughed. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. It can be hazardous. FRIDAY? Go ahead and place the order. It’s going to take some time to get the food delivered and I’d rather it be there when we get there. I’m ravenous! The cheese and cracker thing at Frederick’s didn’t even take the edge off.”

Tony wound up back on the phone getting the arrangements made to ship the Avengers belongings to Wakanda. He was still on the phone when the limo parked in the garage and Peter finally grabbed his elbow, towing him forward.

“Which way, FRIDAY?”

“Straight ahead, Mr. Parker. The elevator doors should be visible.”

“Thanks, FRIDAY.”

Tony never stopped talking as Peter guided him into the elevator. The doors shut and it started up on its own. Evidently FRIDAY knew what he wanted. The doors opened up onto a penthouse that screamed money. Peter took a deep breath and told himself he wasn’t going to discriminate against Tony because he was rich and stepped forward, pulling him with him.

“Where am I going, FRIDAY?”

“The kitchen is on your right. The door is open and the light’s on.”

He kept Tony moving until he got him settled in a chair at the table, digging through the many bags of take out.

“What does he eat?”

“Any and all of it, Mr. Parker. Chinese is a favorite of his.”

“Cool.”

Peter started opening cartons, silverware and chopsticks for Tony and sitting them all in front of him. He pulled a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and settled at the table, handing him one of them before setting to work on his own dinner. Tony was off the phone quickly after that. The sight and smell of food too much for him to put off any longer and he set to with a will.

Peter finished long before Tony did and he was grumbling by the time he finished. “Am I always going to be so damn hungry?”

“Probably not. But I don’t know if you’ve finished changing from the transfusions. Kinda makes sense if your muscles are developing, that you’ll still need a ton of food.” Peter told him absently.

“FRIDAY?”

“He’s right, boss. Your muscle fiber is 63% denser than the pre-transfusion scans.”

Tony blinked. “So that means that I’m getting stronger…?”

“Probably. At least somewhat anyway.” Peter said. “That’s the problem with working with mutated blood. You never know exactly how it will work out.”

Tony found himself smiling as he patted his chest absently. Come to think of it, he had been feeling a LOT better… He cleared his throat and got to his feet, grabbing a StarkPad out of the kitchen drawer.

He pulled up the file and laid it in front of Peter. “Here’s what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s the job offer. If you accept, I’ll get on getting you into MIT via long distance learning and as soon as you know what your Aunt wants to do, I’ll get it done. Staying where she is now won’t work. Not enough security and now that you’ve been seen with me, the paparazzi will be following her also.”

Peter sighed and nodded, pulling the Pad over so he could read it.

“Peter? One other thing, regardless of your decision on the job.”

“What is it?”

“I want you to help heal Rhodey. He doesn’t deserve to be paralyzed. He only came out to support me.” Tony said quietly.

“Of COURSE I’ll help Mr. Rhodes! You don’t even have to ask me, although he may not want it. You’d be surprised how many people freak out at the thought of mutants and superhumans.”

“I know. I’ve got the jet lined up to fly us there in the morning.” He told Peter and his spider just nodded in approval.

“I’ll go. Can I call Aunt May?”

Tony waved him on. “Please.”

Peter grabbed the phone and Pad, walking back to the living room. It’s where Tony found him a bit later, sitting cross legged and looking out over the city.

“Peter?”

He turned a bit and smiled at him. “Hi Tony. I’m just admiring your view. It’s awesome.”

He smiled back. “Is everything okay?”

Peter nodded and rolled to his feet in one smooth move. “It is. I signed the contract, but there’s one thing.”

“What is it?”

“I’d like to be able to help defend you from assassins if needed. You’ve had way too many attempts on your life.”

Tony closed his eyes and nodded. “I can change the contract and add that. I can’t say I wouldn’t mind the help.”

“Good! Now, Aunt May was thrilled. She said for me to tell you that you spend too much time alone. She watches the entertainment news and apparently everyone is speculating on how you’re doing since your best friend is in the hospital now.” He huffed. “Bunch of vultures, aren’t they?”

Tony nodded a bit grimly.

“Aunt May would like to move to Florida and live with her friend Anna. She usually goes there on vacation once a year anyway and she said she’s tired of cold New York winters. Once I get my first paycheck, I’m going to help her mo-…” Peter’s voice cut off as Tony rushed forward and crushed him in a hug.

“No. Just let me know when she’s ready and I’ll make arrangements for it to be done. It just needs to be soon, as the press will sniff her out quickly.” He said, his voice a bit ragged. Peter hugged him back.

“I’m still here, Tony and I’m not going anywhere. The smartest guy in the world offered to help me get through college. Think I’ll turn it down?” Peter said with a laugh. “I bet it would bore you to tears now. You’re a long way past college classes.”

“Probably. But I will definitely get it worked out for you, Peter.”

“Good. Let me call Aunt May back and see when she wants to go.” Peter pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed her, with Tony still wrapped around him. “Hey Aunt May! Yeah, I took the job. I know, I know. I’d be crazy not to, wouldn’t I? Yeah? Really? Well good. I was calling you back to see when you wanted to move and you’ve already answered. Yeah. Okay then. I’ll tell him and he’ll make arrangements for it to be done. Sure Aunt May. I’ll be by if I have to fly to Florida to see you. Tomorrow we’re heading to see his friend, Mr. Rhodes. Yep. I’ll tell him. I love you too, Aunt May. Bye.”

Peter slid his phone in his pocket and rested his chin on Tony’s shoulder. “You ARE stronger. You don’t feel nearly as fragile as a normal person to me.”

“Fragile?”

“Oh, yeah. Super strength is nice and all, but you find out the world is an easily broken place and people are the worst. You’ll have to relearn how to fight so you don’t break someone’s neck or jaw by accident.” Peter told him. “Oh and Aunt May said to tell you she’s ready for warm weather and is turning in her notice of resignation tomorrow morning. She wants to go right away.”

“Alright. We’ll make arrangements in the morning then. You may have to fly down to see her later though, as I doubt we’ll be back from seeing Rhodey so soon.”

“That’s fine, Tony. She’ll be on the phone to Anna non-stop now and ugh… There’s only so much of that a guy can take, you know.”

Tony laughed and Peter patted his back. “Now, would it be easier for you if I slept near your bed or something? I don’t think you’re ready to be alone yet.”

Tony let out a ragged breath. “My bed is huge. Plenty of space for the both of us.”

“Well good. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. It’s been a heck of a couple of weeks.” Peter said. Tony relaxed his hold and pulled back to look at Peter.

“You don’t mind?”

Peter shrugged. “Why would I? You’re freakin’ gorgeous, Tony Stark. And smart. And sar- wait. I’ve already gone through the list before. Are you fishing for compliments?”

Tony grinned. “Of course. But as long as you’re fine with it, I’m exhausted and tomorrow is going to be a long day also.”

“Good. Let’s get some sleep.”

 

The next morning found Peter standing idly in front of a huge whiteboard filled with equations. FRIDAY had asked him to bring down a package that these guys were supposedly waiting on and wait for them to hand him a return package. So far, they’d left him cooling his heels here for more than 20 minutes.

Bored out of his mind and watching the clock, as FRIDAY had told him they were leaving by 10:30am, he studied the whiteboard a bit closer. It was kinda surprising to see it here, as he would have thought most people in the Tower used holographic tables or computers, and it stood out. It only took a couple of minutes to determine that someone was working on a similar project to his stealth unit. They were obviously trying to bend the light correctly, but it wouldn’t work with those equations.

He finally shrugged and made his way over, picking up a marker and writing quickly. It took less than 10 minutes to finish it and he laid the marker down, returning to sitting on the edge of the desk. When a young intern finally ran out holding a package, Peter jumped up and ran for it. He was going to have to hurry to get back in time.

Tony was waiting for him and nodded to the table by the elevator. “Just sit it there. I’ll deal with it when I get back. Did they go to sleep down there or something? FRIDAY said you’ve been gone for more than an hour.”

He shrugged. “I have no idea. I gave them the package and wound up sitting there the rest of the time. They finally showed up with the thing and I ran back to the elevator.”

“Come on. Frederick’s came by this morning and brought some of your clothes. They’re already packed. We need to go.”

Luggage in hand, they were back in the elevator and headed to the parking garage in moments. FRIDAY didn’t have a problem, even with rush hour traffic and Peter thought it was pretty cool to be able to bypass the long lines and go straight through to the plane. He took one last look at those lines before they boarded the plane.

Tony showed him where to stow the luggage and the sleek jet was soon airborne. “Can we use electronics during flight?” Peter asked politely and Tony grinned.

“This is MY plane, Peter. Of COURSE you can use your electronics!”

“Just checking!” He said quickly and pulled out his tablet computer and plugged in the flash drive with his projects. That board had him thinking about his stealth unit now and how he could get it to cancel sound too. He wrote notes and typed his ideas out as quickly as he could before he forgot them. 

“Peter?”

Peter blinked a couple of times before he came back out of his stealth unit. “Yes?”

Tony had a phone held up to his ear. “This morning, did you by chance see a white board in the office they left you kicking your heels in?”

He groaned and covered his eyes with a hand. “I didn’t mess it up! It was wrong though and I know how frustrating it can be to not see your problem. I just scribbled a bit in the margin!”

Tony’s grin widened. “You’ve done some research on light before I take it?”

“Oh yeah. I’m building my own stealth unit. It already works for invisibility and infrared. Now I’m working on noise canceling.”

“Oh?” Tony said, eyebrow climbing. “I don’t remember seeing any files like that on your tablet computer.”

Peter held it up and pointed to the flash drive. “I never keep the good stuff on the computer!”

“You’ve been holding out on me?” Tony said, sounding delighted. “Pepper! Tell Doctor Don that my new PA did it for him. He can thank him later.” Tony listened for a minute before laughing. “FRIDAY? Give Doctor Don Peter’s number.”

“WHAT?” Peter said quickly.

“Yeah, will do Pepper. I know. I actually feel pretty damn good for once. I know, I know. I’ll tell him.” He slid the phone in his pocket and held out his hand. “Hand over the good stuff, Parker!”

Peter sighed but handed over his tablet and pulled out his notebook to start writing. He had to finish getting his idea down on paper or he’d forget it. Unfortunately, his phone rang almost immediately and he picked it up, seeing an SI Tower number listed.

“Better answer that, Peter. Doctor Don has some questions.” Tony said absently as he worked his way through Peter’s schematics.

Holding it like a bomb, he accepted. “Hello, Peter Parker.”

He found out pretty quickly that Doc Don could talk even more than he could. He listened with one ear as he scribbled down his ideas with his free hand. Once the guy finally believed he’d actually solved his problem, Peter found himself to be the one talking endlessly. At least this was a subject he knew well and he finally got the last of his notes down as he talked to the Doctor. Tony promptly held out his hand and Peter handed his notebook over to him as he listened.

He wound up on the phone the entire trip, having to hang up on the man before landing. He slid his phone in his pocket and turned to look for his tablet and notebook. Tony had them both still.

“I’m not done. I’ll get them to you when I’m finished. Peter, I do have a question though.”

“What about?”

“Your ‘spider-sense’ project. Do you really have precognition?”

He nodded. “I do. The warning time varies, but it always alerts for anything unusual. The problem though is you have to be fast enough to avoid whatever it is, as it’s usually only a matter of seconds for smaller things, up to a couple of minutes for larger problems.”

Tony nodded. “I want to work with you on that one. It would be amazing to have that in the armor.”

“Not a problem. It’s hard for me to verify other than electronically, as it goes off for me and I find myself using it instead of verifying it. Very frustrating!” Peter told him as he buckled himself back in.

“There are 87 projects in your folder that I could put on the market with only a bit of work. We can talk about it later, but you have a ton of nice ideas in that folder.”

“Well, a lot of them are only ideas. Finding time to work on tech is rough.”

“Not anymore. Believe me. We’ll find time to get in the lab. SI has always been in the lead in R & D.”

They were able to leave the airport just as easily as they’d entered it and soon FRIDAY was driving them in yet another limo towards Mr. Rhodes’ hospital.

“Want me to wait here in the waiting room, Mr. Stark? I would imagine that he’d like to speak with you first.” Peter said politely and Tony looked confused.

“Why would he? He needs to meet you.”

Peter sighed and stepped a bit closer. “From what I’ve read about Mr. Rhodes, he’s a lot like you Tony. Now, what are the chances that anyone has come by to hug him or stay with him? And he’s dealing with a crippling injury? I think if you go in there and give him the chance, he’s going to need some time with just the two of you. Get it?”

Tony nodded. “I get it. You’re right too. He wouldn’t want a stranger seeing him like that.”

Peter nodded. “Is that the only security they have for him?” He asked, pointing to the two guards by the door.

“It is. I put them there as neither the hospital or the military did anything.”

“Crap! That’s dangerous.”

“I know.”

Peter tipped his head back towards the waiting room. “I’ll just wait in there until you’re ready, okay?”

Tony nodded. “Thanks, Peter.”

He watched as his spider headed into the waiting room before heading to Rhodey’s room. He knocked.

“Hey Rhodey! You decent in there?” He called out and he heard a stuttered sound.

“Tony?”

He opened the door and slipped inside. “Yep. It’s me. In the flesh, Rhodey.” He walked over and smiled at him. “It’s fuckin’ awesome to see you, man.”

He could see the same cold mask he himself used on his best friend and his heart broke all over again. He didn’t even wait; he just leaned forward and hugged his friend as tightly as he could. “I have missed you so much, Rhodey. You can’t even possibly understand.” He whispered. “I’m here now and I’m staying until you’re back on your feet.”

He heard Rhodey’s breath hitch and Tony squeezed tighter. “You’re not alone anymore.” That was all it took as Rhodey’s brave face crumpled and Tony held on as his friend sobbed his heart out on his shoulder. It took a long time before he finally slowed down.

“Tones man… They told me that you were near death! I thought… I thought you might pass and I wouldn’t even be able to get there!” Rhodey said hoarsely. Tony squeezed him tighter. “Man, you look better now than you did when you were 25! The hell, Tones!”

Tony let him go slowly and pulled a StarkPad out of his pocket. He’d put all of his scans on the thing, along with the file on the differences in Peter’s blood, the dosing schedule and the side-effects he’d experienced. He laid it on Rhodey’s chest.

“I was near death, Rhodey. My heart function was down to 39% and they told me to expect a short, bedridden life. I was laying there in that hospital bed after having been alone for nearly a week when I had a visitor.”

“You were alone, too?” Rhodey said. “Shit! I knew I needed to be there.”

Tony grinned. “It’s okay, Rhodey. You see, Spider-Man came to visit me.”

“What? The bug did?”

“He did. He took one look at me and did the same thing I did for you, Rhodey. I bawled my eyes out on his shoulder.”

Rhodey’s face fell. “I’m so sorry man. SO sorry.”

Tony nudged his arm. “No. Don’t be. You see, he stayed Rhodey. He stayed with me day and night for three days. Hell, the first day he held my needy ass hand the entire time and brought out his project schematics and we talked and I finally felt like maybe I wasn’t doomed to die in a bed.”

Rhodey sniffed and reached out to squeeze Tony’s hand. “It was mid-afternoon before I calmed down enough he brought up my blood type.”

Rhodey frowned in confusion. “Your blood type? You’re AB-, just like me.”

Tony grinned. “I know. Spider-Man is AB- too.”

“So?” Rhodey said and Tony stayed silent, letting him think for a moment. It didn’t take long before his eyes shot up to him. “Shit! He has enhanced healing, doesn’t he?”

Tony’s grin got wider. “That he does, my man.”

Tony nudged the StarkPad again. “Read up, Rhodey. I need to know if you want to try what I did.”

Rhodey grabbed the StarkPad desperately and Tony settled into the chair next to his bed. It took him over an hour to get through all of the files he’d put on the thing. Rhodey finally laid the Pad down and grabbed Tony’s hand again.

“Tones, man… Your heart…”

“I know. I’m at 100% now. In fact, Spider-Man told me that I don’t feel nearly as ‘fragile’ as normal people. I’ve run the data and I believe I’m going to end up nearly 10x the strength of a normal human and have enhanced healing.”

Rhodey’s eyes were wide. “Tones…”

Tony’s smile got brighter. “Yeah. I haven’t felt this good in like… forever. It turns out that Spider-Man has some serious science in him, Rhodey. Along with being willing to help keep my ass alive, he also shares the same passion I do for tech. I kept his tablet so you can look over some of his ideas.”

Rhodey suddenly smiled. “You hired him, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did. He’s mine now.”

Rhodey just shook his head. “At least he’s tough enough and crazy enough to deal with the wild shit that goes on in your life.”

“True. I only got him to sign last night as I was released from the hospital yesterday. Now, I need to know – do you want to try this? No guarantees on any of this shit. Mutations are weird things.”

Rhodey looked determined. “I want to walk again, Tones. What do I need to do?”

Tony shrugged. “Nothing. Just get ready to eat like you’ve never eaten before. I’ll get Peter.”

“Peter?”

“Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” Tony threw him a grin as he headed for the waiting room.

“Peter? Can you come back with me?”

Peter looked up at him, phone held to his ear and a rather desperate look on his face. He rose to his feet. “I’m sorry, but Mr. Stark needs my attention. We’ll have to talk later. Bye.” He hung up the phone. “Sure. Is he okay now?”

“A lot better than he was. You were right. He’s been alone.” He told him as he walked over. “Everything okay?”

“Ugh. That one was from a Doctor Phil Mickelson and my goodness but I didn’t think I was going to get him off the phone! I’ve been talking to him nearly the entire time I’ve been in the waiting room!”

Tony smirked. “Doctor Don gave him your number?”

“Oh, yeah. It seems that Doctor Phil is having trouble with a laser he’s working on.” Peter said. Tony pushed the door open and ushered Peter inside.

“Now that they know you can problem solve, Peter. Look out!”

Peter sighed. “I’m fresh out of high school, Tony. I think they could find someone better.”

The door clicked shut behind them and Tony looked up to find Rhodey gaping at them. He finally pointed to Peter.

“HE’S Spider-Man?!”

Peter frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Tony started laughing while Rhodey sputtered. “Kid, you look like a damn model! Tones! You finally found a science guy bad enough to take on your enemies, and pretty enough to be around you without being eclipsed! The hell, man! Congrats!”

“A-A MODEL?!” Peter spluttered and they laughed.

“Peter, Rhodey here wants to give it a shot. We’ve got time as no one is due to check on him for another 4 hours.”

Peter nodded. “Let me get the tubing out.” He dug through his back pack and pulled out a sealed package, ripping it open quickly. “Is FRIDAY going to monitor or are you?”

“I am.” Tony told him as Peter quickly set up Rhodey’s arm. “FRIDAY’s going to be scanning him.”

The whole process went quickly from that point. It felt odd to Tony to be watching it instead of participating in it. As soon as he called it and Peter shut it down, Rhodey’s hand clutched his tightly.

“You’re not planning on going anywhere are you?”

“Hell, no! Iron Man and Spider-Man are here to keep War Machine company, Rhodey. We’re going to be ordering in a mountain of food, because not only can I eat enough for 5 people now, you’re gonna be amazed at how hungry you are in about 12 hours.”

Peter fell asleep in the chair after a while and Tony kept Rhodey company by walking him through Peter’s schematics and projects. Turns out Rhodey was just as excited to think about having his own ‘spider-sense’ installed in his armor. 

“Think you can get it to work?”

“Sure. It’s already working. Peter just can’t do much testing because anything he uses sets off his own precognition and he spends his time getting out of the way instead of testing.” They both grinned at the thought. “We won’t have that problem and can finish it up.”

“Shit, Tony. These projects the kid has here… They’re fuckin’ awesome.”

Tony smiled fondly over at his sleeping PA. “I know. I hired him based off the ones on his tablet, before I even knew he had the ‘good stuff’ flash drive. I found out about it when Pepper called because Doctor Don was harassing her about someone solving his problem with bending light.” They both laughed. “I gave Don his number and Peter spent the entire flight on the phone with him. Then I went to get him from the waiting room and he was on the phone again! This time to Phil who was having trouble with his laser.”

They spent their time talking quietly before both of them finally drifted off to sleep. It was the middle of the night when Tony woke up to a hand shaking him gently.

“Tones? Tony?”

“Yeah, Rhodey? You okay?” He managed to get out, trying to get his brain moving. His eyes widened suddenly because Rhodey… Rhodey was shaking.

“What is it?” He said as dread pooled in his stomach.

“It…” Rhodey sniffed and scrubbed his eyes. “Tones… I can move my toes and my legs… They’ve got that weird pins and needles feeling like when they go to sleep.”

Tony straightened right up. “Really?”

Rhodey rubbed his eyes again. “Really. But honestly, I’m just so DAMN HUNGRY! Please tell me that the leftovers are still in the fridge!”

Tony laughed and nodded, rushing over to grab the food and some water for his buddy and hauling it back to him. “Have a feast, Rhodey!” His best friend devoured every single bit of food before he seemed satisfied.

“Holy shit, but you weren’t kidding. I’ve never been so hungry in my entire LIFE!”

“I know! And I had Peter fight with us in Germany and I didn’t even offer to feed him afterwards. I cannot even imagine how hungry he was.”

It took three more transfusions from Peter to finish healing Rhodey, but after the fourth one, the man walked out of the hospital. He was a bit unsteady, but sandwiched between Tony and Peter he was in no danger of falling.

FRIDAY brought the limo in and within minutes, they were on the highway headed out of town. Rhodey and Tony had talked it over previously and some of his military buddies owed him a favor. They were going to take Peter out to one of their giant training grounds to let him work off some energy and give Rhodey a chance to talk to his contacts. Everyone had thought he’d be down for the count.

Peter looked pretty surprised to see they were pulling up to a military base, but Rhodey had laughed.

“Don’t worry, Peter. Tony and I got your back. This is where my military buddies are based. I’ve got to let all of them know I’ll be able to return to duty and Tony and I arranged for the playground to be empty for you today. You’ve spent too many days locked up in a hospital room, kid. We figured you’re going stir-crazy.”

“The playground…?” Peter asked in confusion.

“It a giant training ground for black ops. You should like it.” Was all Rhodey would tell him. 

They were met by a crowd of military men in front of a long, brick building. Colonel Rhodes introduced Tony and Peter to all of them before they were ushered inside. Peter kept quiet as they discussed their injuries and how damn glad they both were to be out of the hospital. The crowd finally made their way through the building and out the back onto a huge veranda overlooking what seemed to a small, empty city.

A young military man dressed in fatigues and a black t-shirt came trotting up and was introduced.

“Peter? You ready to go explore?” Tony asked him and Peter shrugged.

“I’m not really dressed for it.”

“No worries. I’ll just replace it if it needs to be.”

Peter eyed him sideways but nodded and followed him down the path to the empty city. The man they were following introduced himself as Lieutenant Masterson and explained the purpose of the town and how it was used for training. They finally stopped at the edge of it and the Lieutenant turned to them.

“Now, we usually use this for training for specialty missions. We have a series of 5 items we hide inside the city limits and send the teams in to find them. It’s a point of pride to have the fastest time for search and retrieval.”

“Oh? And these items are hidden in the town somewhere?” Tony asked. The Lieutenant nodded.

“They are. You are more than welcome to try and find them. If you can, come back here and hit the red button over there to stop the clock.”

“What are the items?” Peter asked and the Lietenant held up his hands to indicate size.

“About so big, weigh around 25 pounds each and are numbered 1-5.”

Tony grabbed Peter by the elbow and pulled him closer to the start line. He dug in his pocket and pulled out Peter’s web shooters, laying them in his hand.

“Now, I know how you feel about revealing your identity but Rhodey and I spoke about this. We both think it’s in all of our best interests if the good guys know who you are and what you can do. I wouldn’t ask this of you if these people weren’t already Rhodey’s friends.” Tony told him seriously. “FRIDAY is keeping an eye on things via satellite for us, as frankly I have very little data on just what you can do. Peter? Do your best, but mostly… Have some fun. It’s what we came here for.”

Peter swallowed hard as he stared at him. “You really think it’s okay?”

Tony nodded. “Rhodey and I both do.”

He turned to look at the city before shrugging out of his suit jacket and unbuttoning his sleeves and rolling them up to his elbows. He couldn’t do anything about his shoes. His grip wouldn’t be as good as it would be without them, but no one here would be trying to pull him off a wall or anything. He took a deep breath.

“Five items…” He said softly before he grinned. “Too bad you didn’t bring your armor. We could have had a race!”

Tony pointed. “Go on! Have some fun!”

Peter grinned and ran forward, leaping straight up and on top of a three story building next to them. He ran straight down the roofline and leaped off the far side with a whoop and the familiar thwip sound of his web shooters as he snagged the next building, moving rapidly into the town.

Tony glanced over when he saw movement and saw the Lieutenant staring at where Peter vanished in amazement.

“He, uh… He just jumped up on top of that building.” He said a bit dazedly. 

“He did.” Tony said with a grin. “What’s your name?”

“Harry, sir.”

“Harry, call me Tony.” Tony’s eyes narrowed as Peter swung back into view, bounced off of the last two buildings and hit the ground gracefully, running over to hit the buzzer with a laugh.

“You were right! That was fun!” He told him, grinning happily while holding all five items in one hand. He turned to Harry. “Where am I supposed to put these anyway? Back into place?”

Tony thought poor Harry was having a mental meltdown and he patted his shoulder. “Harry? Do you want him to put them back into place?”

“Hell, no!” A much deeper voice rang out and they all turned to see Rhodey’s crowd of people all coming down, Rhodey in the lead.

“Peter! Damn it, man! No one’s ever found all 5 in less than 31 minutes. Ever! You came back in a minute and 6 seconds.” Rhodey yelled, walking over and slinging his arm around his shoulders. “Kid, you’re making us look bad.”

“That was awesome work! Peter, right?” Another one asked him and Tony’s PA nodded.

“Just wait here. We’re going to get creative in hiding them from you this time.” He said and grabbed his radio. In moments, a squad appeared and Peter handed over the items, watching the squad vanish into town. A big truck had pulled up behind them and Rhodey called Tony over.

“This way! We’re gonna watch him on the monitors, Tony.” 

Tony grinned and clapped Peter’s shoulder. “Good luck! As soon as they come back, you can go in.”

Peter nodded and waited, the Lieutenant still standing nervously near him and casting him odd looks. The squad came back out after a few more minutes, all of them grinning.

“You’re not going to find them this time! We’ve got them in the tried and true failsafe spots!” They were all yelling cheerfully at Peter who smiled.

“If I don’t, I don’t! It’s fun to look though.”

They all gathered up near Harry. “Anytime, Peter.”

“Good!” Peter exploded away from the start line this time. A literal blur of color as he was gone in seconds. Everyone trying to watch on the monitors started complaining because it was almost impossible to tell where he was. All they could get was he was taking a rather broken line through town. When he returned, all five items in hand and hand slapping the buzzer, everyone looked over at the timer.

“SHIT! 43 seconds?!”

Peter gave them the items again and the squad took off once more, while in the truck Tony was replaying the CCTV video at ¼ speed. Enlarged and on the main screen, he could finally see what Peter had done.

“It’s his spider-sense, isn’t it?” Rhodey said quietly. Tony nodded. Slowed down, it was easy to see that Peter had definitely been following a trail. He hadn’t deviated, going straight from one item to the next.

“What exactly are you two talking about? Spider-Sense?” General Ramsey said in confusion.

“Peter’s precognitive. He picks up on anything unusual around him. Smaller things are usually only a few seconds, but larger ones can go for several minutes.” Rhodey said. “I believe we’re watching him use it to find those items.”

“It’s experience.” Tony said. “Peter’s been learning how to use it for years now and something like this game of hide and seek plays right to his experience. I think we can change the game up a bit to make it harder.”

“What?” Rhodey said, looking at him and Tony grinned. 

“We need to round up items not used in this game. Not show him what they are and get him to bring back everything hidden.” Smiles broke out all around.

“How many do you want?” General Ramsey asked.

“Let’s go for twenty unknown items and see how he does with a very vague mission of ‘find the unknown stuff’.” Tony said heading back out of the truck. “I’ll go talk to Peter.”

They wound up spending better than fours hours playing hide and seek with Peter. None of the different methods they tried could slow him down. The ONLY time they managed to make him hesitate was when they put out huge piles of stuff in several locations and asked him to bring back only the one item they’d selected as the target.

It was cool as hell watching Peter crouch down, shifting through their junk with his head cocked, listening to his precognition before snapping up the right one and bounding out the window. Peter was dusty and dirty when he came swinging back that time and everyone was waiting for him at the buzzer.

He handed over the item to Tony and stretched himself out.

“Alright, Peter. Now, is there ANY way we could deflect your spider-sense?”

Peter frowned. “When you’re sending me out without knowing what I’m looking for, the item I find only really stands out if whoever put it there thinks of it as the target. Does that make sense? When I’m working off of someone else’s goal, THEY need to have a clear picture of what they want in mind.”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “That sounds rather like a type of telepathy.”

Peter shrugged. “I don’t read minds. I’m picking up the energy field around everything and the person giving the target influences the energy field. That’s what I read. That’s how I got the spider-sense prototype to work anyway.”

“Well, I can see we’ll have some more time in the lab to figure that one all the way out. But for now, I want to go web swinging! Care to give me a ride?”

“Really?” Peter said, his eyes lighting up in excitement. “This town’s big enough you can actually enjoy it, although the skyscrapers are more fun because you can really get up some speed.”

Tony laughed. “Come on! Let’s go! When we get back, we’ll go find some lunch. You’ve got to be hungry by now.”

“Deal!” Peter got Tony on his back, legs wrapped around his waist securely before he simply leaped on top of the closest building from where he was standing next to the buzzer. Rhodey smiled when he heard the both of them whoop in happiness as Peter jumped off the building into free fall before shooting a web and launching himself deeper into the town.

Rhodey turned back to his friends and found General Ramsey smiling at him.

“This worked out well, Rhodes. Look at everybody.”

Rhodey nodded. The town was surrounded by cheering soldiers, everyone trying to catch a glimpse as Peter went swinging by, twisting and flipping gracefully through the air. After Captain America defected, morale had gone through the floor, but this… The kid had been just what was needed. 

“Tony and I had hoped it would be enough.”

“It’s more than enough! It’s a damn awesome thing to see! After Cap… Well, after the shit fell out over the Accords, I admit, we were ready to back restricting superhumans. But this…? Peter’s amazing.”

“His control is superb, too. You’d never know he had super strength until he does something like jumping straight up on top of a three story building.”

“Do you think he’d sign autographs? Spider-Man’s one of the famous ones. From the looks of everyone, I think they’d all like the chance to speak with him.”

“Be good for morale.”

Rhodey held up his hands. “Whoa there! First things first. We’ve got to feed him. That enhanced metabolism of his burns through calories like nobody’s business.”

Peter and Tony finally made their way back and landed in front of Rhodey.

“Okay, I admit it. That’s all kinds of fun right there, Peter. I love flying, but it’s not as exhilarating as that is.” Tony said as he slid down off Peter’s back. “Come on. Let’s go back to the limo and dig through the luggage. You and I could use a change of clothes and a shower.”

“We can help you out with that, Mr. Stark!” Lieutenant Masterson said quickly. “Just follow me!”

Rhodey couldn’t help but smile at the eager crowd of soldiers escorting Tony and Peter back to the limo. He followed General Ramsey back into the training center. They went into the Officers cafeteria, while Rhodey filled the General in on just how much Peter would probably need to eat.

Tony and Peter were brought in a half hour later, both of them on their phones and escorted by some very attentive guards. Clean once more, Rhodey was hit by the fact that SI now had two damn pretty faces to put in front of it. He could hear the others muttering quietly about how attractive they were and he looked over to see the General smiling at him. The man shrugged.

“It’s a base full of men, Rhodes. You know what it’s like and your friends there – they’re pretty enough that it doesn’t matter.”

The young grunt actually ran forward and pulled out Tony’s chair for him and his buddy raised an eyebrow at him in question. The poor kid turned red as a tomato and backed away with an apology while Tony settled next to him and Peter sat on his other side. Tony ended his call and nudged Peter.

“Put him on speaker. I can’t believe they’re having this much trouble.”

Peter nodded and hit speaker laying his phone on the table and after a questioning look at the two of them, set to work eating as they listened. There was some low conversation at the other end, but here where Rhodey was, everyone was quiet as they listened to a string of math being rattled off. Tony and Peter both started at the same time.

“Hold up!” Peter cut in.

“He’s right.” Tony said. “You’ve got a mistake.”

The three way conversation that followed was so damn complex that Rhodey gave up listening to it. General Ramsey was though although he was shaking his head.

“Rhodes, I thought you told me that Peter just graduated.”

“He did. But really? Brilliant is brilliant. He knows enough that Tony’s R&D has been pestering him to problem solve for them ever since he’s been hired.”

“I would have thought though that the people Mr. Stark hires would be some of the best in the business.”

“They are. Tony told me once though that the difference between a damn good scientist and a great one is that intuitive leap from an idea to creation.” He tipped his head down the table. “As you can see down there. Peter’s got it and now Tony’s people know.” Rhodey laughed. “It’s actually nice just to have someone that can help me keep up with the man. Tony can jump off into the science so deep a life jacket can’t keep me afloat.”

Tony and Peter finally ended their call and Tony huffed. “When we get back to the Tower Peter, we’re going to spend some time going through R&D. Apparently there are a lot of stalled projects. You’ve been on the phone almost as much as I have and that’s nothing to be proud of.”

Peter laughed. “You’re the one that gave them my number.”

“I know. I had no idea they’d be this needy though!”

“So did you guys get him straightened out?” Rhodey asked and Tony nodded.

“For now. He’s got a couple of days work ahead of him before he’ll need help again.”

Peter nodded. “His power supply isn’t going to work as he has it set up now.”

Tony grinned over at Peter. “Keep eating! We need to get you full so we can hit the road again.”

“Actually Tony, the General has offered to put us up for tonight. He wants to know if you feel up to signing autographs.”

Tony paused. “…What?”

“Autographs, Tony. You know, where you sign your name for people that are fans?” Rhodey said with a smirk.

Tony looked over and saw that all of Rhodey’s buddies looked hopeful before he looked back at his friend. “If you think it’ll help, then fine. I’ll have to make some more calls though and push everything back until tomorrow morning.”

Rhodey beamed at his friend. “Thanks, man!” That’s when Peter’s phone rang and the kid looked down at it on the table, frowning. “I don’t know a Doctor Maria Gonzalez.”

“What?!” Tony yelped and grabbed up the phone. “This is ridiculous!” He answered it quickly. “What?” He listened quietly for the longest time, a frown on his face, before he sighed. “That’s a legitimate need. I’ll give you to Peter. I’ve got to make some calls of my own and don’t have time.” He handed the phone over. “Get to work.”

Peter sighed and took the phone. “Peter Parker.”

Tony pulled out his own phone and set to work changing the schedule, while the General made arrangements for a place to be set up for autographs and a notification to the base. Rhodey finally had to get both of them by the arm and tow them out of the room as they talked. The General led them to the giant conference room in their gym and Rhodey got them settled at the table. Once again, Tony managed to get off the phone before Peter and gestured to the phone. Peter clicked it over to speaker one more time and laid it down. 

Rhodey could hear a woman talking, heavily technical information about phase shifting in a force field. When she finally stopped, Peter started and Tony nodded along. The doors to the conference room opened and Rhodey grinned at the line stretching out the door. He could hear endless murmurs of “It’s Iron Man!” “It’s War Machine!” but mostly he heard, “I heard that Spider-Man was here!”.

At the questioning glance from the General, Rhodey nodded. “They can multi-task. Don’t keep your men waiting.”

Someone brought over some huge stacks of photos and set them up next to each of them as the men started filing in. Rhodey felt his grin widen as Peter was rattling off math at a horrific rate as the first soldier got there, clutching a t-shirt. He held it out to Peter hopefully and Rhodey had to get up and lean over his shoulder.

“It’s called an autograph, kid. You’re supposed to sign it.”

The young soldier in front of him nodded quickly. “Can you sign it like you used to? With ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’?”

Peter looked over at Tony a bit desperately as he kept talking and Tony, well… It was obviously all Tony could do not to burst out laughing. He pointed to the kid’s shirt. “Get busy!”

Peter nodded and held out his hands, the guy shoving his t-shirt forward eagerly and Peter laid it down on the table. His eyes widened and he actually stopped talking. Tony did start laughing then, because it was a Spider-Man t-shirt.

“Just sign it right there! I’m gonna have it framed!” The young soldier said eagerly. “I never thought I’d get to meet you!”

The phone between Tony and Peter started squawking angrily and Peter pulled himself back together, returning to his math as he signed the t-shirt quickly. It took several more minutes before he finally finished with Doctor Gonzalez and Tony spent a couple of minutes talking to her before he ended the call. Peter had turned his attention to the endless string of soldiers coming through the door, his ability to talk under pressure coming through as he traded quips with each person he signed something for.

Rhodey noticed, so he knew Tony did too. The two of them had a ton of merchandise, most of it quite well done and Tony was signing StarkPads and StarkPhones like crazy as well. But Peter… The kid was signing comic books, t-shirts, trading cards, posters, action figures, you name it. Almost every single soldier coming in for an autograph had something Spider-Man related he wanted signed.

He saw one burly guy stop in front of him and look down, frowning. He was clutching an action figure still in the box. “How do I know that you’re the REAL Spider-Man? This baby right here, is a limited edition and I don’t want some imposter signing their name on it and ruining the value!” He growled. Peter looked bemused as he glanced between the box and the huge fellow for a few seconds.

“Could you sit the box on the table for a moment?”

“What?”

“Just for a moment. It won’t take long.” Peter told him quickly and Tony glanced over at him. The huge soldier frowned but slowly sat it on the table and patted it carefully.

“It’s down.”

“Good.” Peter said before he moved so quickly that eyes couldn’t track him, the soldier before him vanishing with a yelp of surprise. Tony damn near fell out of his chair laughing and he pointed up. Peter was hanging from the ceiling, one arm wrapped securely around the soldier’s waist as he gaped down at the floor below them.

“Good enough?” Peter asked him and the guy nodded.

“You really are the REAL Spider-Man!”

Peter let go, rolling them both gracefully around and setting the guy back down in the same spot. Peter landed on the edge of the table, perfectly balanced as he patted the guy’s shoulder.

“You okay?”

The soldier nodded quickly, while everyone else in line started cheering. Peter just shook his head and jumped backwards to land on the floor and sit back down in his chair. He signed the guy’s box quite carefully and the fellow walked away grinning hugely as he hugged his box.

Rhodey spent a couple of fun hours signing and listening to Tony and Peter trade puns and bad jokes with each other and the soldiers in front of them. It went smoothly and the only glitch came near the end. A tall, thin man had stopped in front of Peter, looking at him anxiously.

“I just wanted to say that you are my Dad’s and mine favorite superhuman! Dad’s got his man cave papered with posters of you.” (Peter’s eyebrows shot way up at that statement.) “We always followed you on the news and well, we’ve missed you not being around these last few months.” The guy dropped a small silver rod on the table that was around an inch and a half in diameter. He pointed to it.

“My Dad’s father worked in the super soldier program back in WWII. That’s a piece of vibranium he got as a memento from it. It’s been in the family ever since and well… We’re not really fans of Captain America, especially lately. We are fans of yours though. I was wondering if you would try to squeeze that bar, because if you could put your handprint on it, it would be AWESOME! I’d have something that tied the two things together!”

“You said its vibranium though.” Tony cut in. “That shit’s incredibly hard to damage.”

The fellow held up his phone. “I can get a picture of him trying it anyway; it would be almost as good!”

Tony picked up the bar and looked it over before shrugging. He tossed it to Peter. “Give it a go.”

Peter frowned and looked between Tony and the bar before his hand tightened around the bar. Rhodey could see Peter tense as he focused on putting everything into his hand. Everyone in front was snapping pictures madly and Peter suddenly yelped and dropped the bar to the table, shaking his hand. Looking down, they could all see why. The bar was glowing red hot but he’d done it. You could see the bar was now imprinted with an impression of Peter’s hand.

“Holy SHIT!” The guy yelled. “That was AWESOME!”

Everyone was still snapping pictures as Peter grimaced and shook his hand. “What that was, was HOT! Vibranium holds heat really well.”

Tony and Rhodey didn’t know what to say as they both looked over the bar laying there.

“Is your hand hurt?” Tony finally asked and Peter shook his hand.

“It’s minor. It’ll heal up in an hour or so.”

“Hey! It’s cooled off now! Can you sign it with ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ for me?” He held out a permanent marker and Peter quickly wrote out what he wanted. It didn’t take long before they’d signed the last item and the General escorted them to dinner.

It was much later that evening, Tony, Rhodey, General Ramsey and three Colonels that were Rhodey’s buddies, were all sitting outside on the veranda discussing how they could continue to improve relations between the military, police and superhumans. Peter was asleep on the couch inside the door. Or at least… He was.

“Peter?” Tony called out, seeing his PA come bounding out the door, wide eyed and alert. “What’s wrong?”

“Due south, less than 2 miles and around 600 feet up is… something. Something big. Really big.” He said, alert and focused on the night sky.

General Ramsey frowned and grabbed his phone, calling into command. A few seconds later, he was shaking his head. “Nothing is showing up on radar.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean much. Radar is ridiculously easy to lie to.” Tony said. “Is it bad, Peter?”

“Yeah. Like the ‘I’m shooting missiles at you’ kind of bad.” 

“Damn it! Where’s your control room? I’ll see if I can get it to pick up whatever that is.”

Ramsey started calling out orders and Tony urged Peter back inside. “Wait here. Lieutenant Masterson and his team are almost here. They’ll stay with you. Rhodey and I are going to see if we can find this ‘thing’.”

Peter nodded quickly and followed. They left him in the lounge as Masterson’s squad fell into place around the room. There were jeeps waiting out front and they all piled into them, heading across the base. The activity level was climbing rapidly as soldiers were roused and Tony and Rhodey were escorted down into the underground building housing their Command.

They’d no more entered the room when a low, rolling ‘boom’ rumbled through the room.

“Status!” Ramsey snapped and a young soldier saluted. “Sir! An energy beam just swept over the Training Center building! Unknown type!”

“Any damage?”

“There doesn’t appear to be any, sir!”

“Major Dinal! Get a squad over there. Some of our men and Spider-Man were still inside that building.”

“Right away, sir!”

Rhodey got Tony seated in front of a computer terminal and his friend set to work. One look at that too pale face told him just how badly Tony was hurting. If they’d brought Peter with them, he’d be safe right now.

“Let me know when you can get some eyes on it, Mr. Stark. We’re blind until then.”

Tony just nodded and kept typing.

 

“Lieutenant! Lieutenant! Wake up! Hurry!”

Harry managed to get his eyes open and found himself staring up at the stunningly pretty face of Spider-Man. “Wha’ hap’n’ing?”

“We were kidnapped. I was knocked out briefly and when I woke up, we were in this cell. Even worse, they didn’t take any weapons or anything from you guys at all.”

Harry blinked as his brain kicked into gear. “Oh, shit.” He muttered as his training started to work. “They’re gonna kill us then.”

Peter nodded grimly. “That’s what I think. I’ve found four different gas nozzles in this cell alone.”

Harry looked around, seeing his squad sprawled out everywhere. “What the hell can we do?”

“Do you happen to have any tools?” Peter asked him and Harry thought for a second before pulling out his Buck tool. “George over there usually keeps a little set in his pocket, as he likes to tinker on stuff.”

“Come on. I need them. We’ve got to get everybody up and mobile. We’re breaking out of here.”

Harry looked over quickly. “What?!”

“You didn’t want to stay around for them to kill you, did you?”

He shook his head numbly. 

“Good. You guys are black ops or so Rhodey said. Some of the best trained out there. Haven’t you trained to infiltrate?”

“We have.” Harry said tentatively. “But never without intel.”

Peter huffed and moved onto the next guy to try and rouse them. “I’m never lucky enough to get intel. It’s always seat of the pants and pray.”

Harry pulled himself together and started helping get everyone on their feet. Peter was almost dancing with impatience as he got the last one on his feet. At Harry’s request, they handed over all of the small tools they had on them and Peter seemed happy. He had the back off the door lock and was working on the internals in seconds as Harry filled them in. Everyone seemed to be recovered for the most part and they formed up, ready to go. The door unlocked and Peter pushed it open, darting out into the hallway and they followed. They found him webbing the last guard to the floor. He looked up and nodded. 

“They’re the only guards I’m picking up.”

Harry held out his hand and George tossed the little radio into it. “Peter? This radio is set to our secure channel 2. I’ve got one on it also. The rest of us will be using 1. Can you scout and give us the intel? We can infiltrate, but we need to know what we’re getting into.”

Peter nodded and slipped his shoes off. “Can one of you carry my shoes? They’re too loud and my grip’s not as good.”

“Give’em here. I’ve got space in my pack.”

Peter handed them over and grabbed the radio. “I’ve got to find a computer room and see about getting some hacks running on door locks, alarms, cameras, you name it. Get ready. I’ll call you as soon as I know where you can go.”

Harry nodded and Peter jumped up onto the ceiling, crawling out of sight rapidly.

“Think we can do this, sir?”

Harry looked back over at his men seriously. “Of course. We train for this all the time. At least this way, our intel will be current.” That got him a few grins and they fanned out, moving along the hallway in the direction Peter had gone. It was nearly thirty minutes of whispered radio conversations before Peter found a computer room. They all made it there, finding him waiting just outside.

“Four people. You can’t use guns in here as I need those systems working. Ready?”

Harry nodded and Ralph and Mike moved to the front. “They’re the best in hand to hand, Peter.”

“Good. Here we go.” He whispered as he triggered the door lock and launched himself inside, all of them right on his heels. It was ridiculously easy to overpower them. They’d had no idea they were about to be attacked and were soon tied up and sitting in the closet. Peter had dropped into place at the computer terminal, typing rapidly.

Harry set two men at the door to keep watch as the rest of them watched code scroll across the screen at blazing speed. It took nearly 15 minutes before Peter was satisfied. He stood up. “We’re good. I need to destroy the door lock and we’re going to make our way to the bridge. This ship has a ship wide defense system of gas spray. We’ve got to be damn careful, but as soon as we control the bridge, we’ll put everyone to sleep and see about landing. What do you think?”

Harry felt a fierce smile stretch across his face. “Sounds like a plan to me, Peter. We’ll follow.”

“Alright then.” Peter paused at the door before slipping out and waving them to come on. It took less than a minute for him to have the door lock a twisted mess of smoking wires. He fastened the cover back over it with a grin and bounced forward.

 

Rhodey watched his friend battle with a computer system that wasn’t nearly powerful enough to do what he wanted it to do. FRIDAY was currently running scans and Tony had the SI mainframe correlating data as he worked on a way to track whatever it was that had taken Peter.

He’d only asked status once and Tony dropped off into phase shifting mathematics. Rhodey backed away and let his friend work. When Tony’s phone rang, his friend ignored it. Rhodey leaned over to see who was calling and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

“It’s Peter!”

“What?!” Tony snapped and grabbed the phone. “Peter?”

“Hey boss! It’s been a long day, but now we have another problem. We got loose and have taken over this ship, but… None of us have ever flown an aircraft. Any ideas? I can run propulsion and ship systems, but flight? Nope. Not rated.”

Tony’s hands curled into fists. “Can you give me access?”

“Sure. One second.” Tony’s phone suddenly beeped and Tony pulled a cable out of his pocket, plugging the phone into the terminal. “This’ll work. FRIDAY! Take over manual piloting. Peter? I’ve got navigation. You handle the rest. Rhodey? Where can we set it down? I’m linking it into the map… Now.”

The wall display suddenly had a red blip on it. “What about the shields, Peter?”

“Yeah, they’re something aren’t they? Fully phased, the works. Lot like the Chitauri stuff. If I drop the shields now, will we be blown out of the sky? Like, a huge unknown ship in US airspace would be a big problem.”

“Rhodey!”

Ramsey walked over. “We can send an escort out to that location and let the other bases know. Give us 10 minutes to scramble the escort and give the alert.”

“Will do. Peter, did you copy?”

“I did. Where are we going to land this thing?”

“Back here, Peter.” Rhodey cut in. “The runway is one of the longest in this section of the country.”

“Well, alrighty then.”

Their main screen suddenly flickered to life and they could see the bridge of the ship. Peter was seated at a computer terminal, typing just as quickly as Tony was, both of them frowning as they worked. Behind him, he could see Lieutenant Masterson and his team securing the people that had obviously been on the bridge.

“Lieutenant? Report, please.”

He saluted. “General! We were knocked unconscious by whatever it was that grabbed us, sir. We woke up in a cell in the brig. They hadn’t taken a single thing from us and Peter said it was quite likely they were going to kill us then. The cell we were in had four different kinds of gas nozzles in it alone. Peter hacked the door lock and got us out. He scouted and fed us intel as we infiltrated the ship. When we found a computer room, he ran hacks on door locks, cameras, alarms and most ship systems. We left there after he destroyed the door lock and followed the map to the bridge, sir. Slow and careful. We made it and took over the bridge, gassing all levels. Right now, the only people up on this ship are those of us on the bridge. We knocked everyone else out, sir.”

Ramsey smiled proudly. “Good work, Lieutenant.”

“Thank you, sir. However, we never could have done it without Peter. None of us knows the first thing about hacking.”

On the wall map, the red dot was turning around now and starting to make its slow progression back to the base. Rhodey could see six green dots nearing the ship now.

General Ramsey spoke up. “We’re clear. Drop the shields, please. The escort will form up on you and make sure you’re not bothered on your way back to base.”

“Peter? Drop the shields now.”

“On it.” Peter answered, jumping up and darting over to a different terminal and settling into place. It took him nearly a minute of work before communications exploded with traffic as the huge aircraft became visible. Peter ran back over to his first terminal and resumed typing. Next to him, Rhodey could see the huge pilot’s yoke moving as FRIDAY drove the damn thing.

“Hey, Tony?”

“What is it, Peter?”

“Engine 5 is quirky as anything. I’m getting variation in excess of 32% output. Do I have two minutes to write a workaround?”

Tony glanced up and looked at the distance. “You do. Don’t let the damn thing die on us. We’ll need all of them to get it on the ground safely.”

“Wow, do all SI employees get the trial by fire script writing marathon?” Peter said with a grin and Tony snorted. 

“Nope. You’re just a special case. Any idea why they snatched you guys up?”

Peter’s hands paused for a second before slowly nodding. His hand slid over and grabbed his phone, typing something rapidly. Tony’s phone beeped and he glanced over to see the message before damn near snarling.

“Well, that answered that, didn’t it? Let’s get this bastard on the ground. Tell me when you’re back to full power.”

“Will do.”

Rhodey had never felt so damn helpless in his life as his friends flew an aircraft. The one with experience was stuck on the ground and flying remotely and the one with no flight training was stuck on board.

“It’s a damn awesome thing to see, Rhodes.” General Ramsey said quietly next to him. “Glance around you. People are spellbound.”

Rhodey did, finding the entire command center was quiet and watching the action on the screen.

“Re-route written, Tony. Give it ten seconds… 5…. 2… Go. Engine 5 is stable.” Peter called out and Tony nodded.

“Good job, Peter. FRIDAY, talk to the Tower. We need to do a straight in approach. This beast is too damn heavy for much in the way of slow flight. She’s gonna come down like a rock.”

“On it, boss.” In the background, Rhodey could hear FRIDAY over the communication line, talking to the Tower.

“Peter, get the script ready for landing. As soon as the wheels are down, implement reverse thrust. We want 30% immediately and boost it steadily to 75% until we stop. Monitor the speed. You may have to up the rate of reverse thrust if we’re not slowing fast enough.”

“Okay.”

The screen suddenly split as the cameras picked up the big ship coming in. No one was talking now as Tony and Peter worked, the video showing the huge aircraft coming in. The nose was slowly tilting upwards to help them bleed off speed and on the bridge, Harry’s team settled into chairs and strapped in. Peter didn’t, but Rhodey was pretty sure nothing short of a bomb could move him if he didn’t want to be moved.

“Get ready, Peter.” Tony called out. 

“I’m ready. Tell me when.”

Rhodey couldn’t help but be impressed as Tony and FRIDAY set that big bastard down at the very, very end of the runway. The moment the nose wheel chirped, he called out.

“Now, Peter!”

The sound of the engines changed as Peter kicked in reverse thrust, the sound rising steadily as the huge plane slowed down, painstakingly slowly. Peter jumped up and flipped a switch on the panel next to him, dropping back into his seat and typing. The engines roared now, the bridge shuddering under the strain.

The end of the runway was already in sight and coming in quick as Tony cussed under his breath and kept typing. The big engines were shrieking now, but the plane was slowing much faster and Rhodey finally could breathe again as it slowed to a stop, leaving all of them staring out into the darkness.

Behind Peter, Harry and his team cheered as Peter shook out his hands, Tony doing the same thing here in the command center.

“Find out where to park the thing, FRIDAY.”

“Will do, boss.” Rhodey heard her query and she broke back in. “Turn right and follow the flagmen.”

“Alright. You’re still driving, FRY. Peter, she still got any boost?”

“Yeah, but it’s dropping fast now that the engines are at idle.”

“Give us a bit. We’ve got to back up and turn right, following the flagmen.”

Peter set back to work, the big engines cutting in again as the ship inched backwards.

“That’s good, Peter. Forward thrust.”

The plane inched forward, slowly picking up speed as it turned right and followed the flagmen down the taxiway. It finally came to a stop in the middle of a huge asphalt parking lot, military vehicles surrounding it.

“Alright, now we’re going through the shutdown checklist. Got it pulled up?”

“Yeah.” Peter said quietly and the two of them traded back and forth, who was shutting down each section. As soon as it was shut down safely, Tony looked at Peter.

“Rhodey and I are on our way. I’ll call you and let you know what we need done, step by step, okay?”

“I’ll be here.” Peter said and the screen went dark as Tony cut the connection and grabbed his phone.

“Get us out there, Rhodey.”

The General had his teams in full gear. Tony had Peter open the access door for them and they ran inside. They had to secure everyone on the level first before Peter could flush the gas out, letting them move inside and start on the next level. It was a long process and took more than 3 hours to get done. The US military took more than 700 prisoners from the ship alone and suffered no casualties.

As soon as the floor was flushed of gas, Tony headed in and banged on the bridge doors. “Open up!”

The doors unlocked and opened. Tony rushed inside, Rhodey on his heels and Peter smiled and waved.

“Hi Tony! You should be glad that I like to read ahead, because wow! They don’t teach this kind of stuff in high school, I can tell you that now!”

Tony managed a brief laugh before hugging Peter tightly. Rhodey threw his arms around the both of them and Peter set his chin on Tony’s shoulder.

“You saw the labs?”

“I did.”

“You think the same thing then?”

“I do.”

“I’ve already gotten the General on it, Peter. The best damn people I’ve ever worked with and we’ve got a fuckin’ traitor in the midst. They’ll find’em, kid.”

“Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired. And hungry. And I’m pretty sure that this is another suit that’s ruined. I’m not doing so well in the clothes department.” Peter said dryly. “I think I should change back to jeans.”

“NO!” Tony and Rhodey said in unison before grinning at each other.

“I’ll replace them, Peter. Good god, they’re getting destroyed on the job.” Tony said.

“Yeah, definitely no changing back to jeans, Peter. It would ruin the view for the rest of us.” Rhodey told him, grinning.

“The view?” Peter said archly and Rhodey and Tony both smirked.

“Just to let you know, we’ve changed plans again. We’ll be staying here at least one more day. You’ll have to be debriefed over what happened and I’m sure they’re going to want details. We need to grab copies of all the code you wrote here tonight. They’re going to want it.”

Peter sighed and nodded. “Do you have my tablet computer?”

“I do, but not with me.” Tony pulled out a StarkPad. “Use this and start copying.”

Peter took it and set back down at the terminal, plugging it in and getting to work.

 

Many hours later, Tony and Rhodey were dragging their tired PA back to the Officers cafeteria. Peter was yawning non-stop, but more importantly they could hear his stomach growling. As soon as he had them settled at a table, he placed their order and the three of them settled in to eat.

Tony wound up on the phone to Pepper, eating as he talked to her.

“Yeah, I know. Peter’s phone is having a melt down. I’m going to have to get him a company phone, considering he’s spent more hours on his than I have. Yeah. I know. We’re planning on going through R&D when we get back. I know. What? Really?” Tony sighed and Rhodey watched him grimace. “Maybe. I don’t think so though. Not until there’s no choice. Yeah. I’m hoping we can be out of here by this evening or early tomorrow morning.”

Tony was quiet for a bit before he grimaced again. “How was I supposed to know anyway? New York is a strange town. What? Well gee, I’m glad the Board Members are happy that we survived yet another kidnapping here.”

Peter’s phone suddenly beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket, looking down with a frown. “Really?”

“What is it, Peter? Your Aunt?” Rhodey asked and Peter shook his head.

“Three missed calls from SI.”

Tony barked a laugh. “No, no Pepper! Peter’s phone just caught up and he’s got three missed calls from SI. Yeah, I know. How’d they get along without him? Whatever, I know. I’ll let you know the moment we’re out of here, okay? Yeah, bye.”

“Do NOT answer those, Peter! As soon as you’re done eating, we’re finding someplace to crash.”

“Sounds good. As much as I like math, sleep sounds better right now.” Peter said, yawning again.

“You finished then?” Rhodey asked. “We’ve got a room assigned to us we can use. The only thing I know about is another meeting with General Ramsey at 4pm. After that we’re clear I think.”

“Lead the way then, Rhodey. Any idea where the limo went to? We need the luggage.”

“It’s already being delivered to the room, Tones. Come on.”

Four that evening, Rhodey had his friends heading into the conference room for their last meeting. Both of them were cleaned back up and looking pretty. Walking into the room though, Rhodey’s eyebrows shot up in surprise because the room was PACKED with brass and nearly 50 different tech guys.

Rhodey stopped and saluted. “Sirs!”

“At ease, Colonel.” General Ramsey said. “Now, I know this is quite a crowd, but everyone wants to hear firsthand how you guys did it. They’ve already went through the process with Lieutenant Masterson and his team, now they want to hear what Mr. Parker and Mr. Stark did to enable the team to have such success.” He nodded and one of the tech guys activated the screen and pulled up a section of coding.

“Could you walk everyone through the steps you took to try and crack the shield around the craft, Mr. Stark?”

Tony frowned as they’d already done this thing this morning. The only difference was all the high ranking officers were here now. Damn it. It wouldn’t be good for SI to alienate the military, so he set to work explaining everything he did to try and get the substandard mainframe to do what he needed. It was really obvious, really quickly that he was way over the heads of the military technicians. Even so, it still took him over an hour to describe everything he did to get the craft on the ground.

Tony turned it over to Peter next who had to describe how he hacked the door locks, how he had written the script to implement all the system hacks he’d put into place and what he’d done to help set the plane down. The tech guys looked frustrated by the time he’d finished.

“Mr. Parker? What I would like to know is where you learned how to do these things? I don’t know of any high school that teaches subjects like that, as I didn’t even learn it in college.”

Peter looked like he was struggling to figure out how to explain before he finally started. Tony was smiling and he sat back in his chair to listen.

“There isn’t a class for that kind of stuff, but really? The door lock systems are pretty self-explanatory. Look.” Peter called up the diagram again and walked them through the schematic he’d drawn out. “Do you really need a class to tell you where to cut the power, so the lock will open? It’s obvious. I didn’t need a class. I wanted out of there, so I took steps to GET out of there.”

Several of the tech guys looked frustrated but even more of them were nodding in agreement.

“Well? What about the hacks you put into place then? Where did you learn to do those?”

Peter simply looked stunned and shrugged. “I don’t know. Life? I mean, if it’s interesting I investigated it and picked up things here and there. You guys should know there’s no one way to approach a hack. Every system is different, so you change how you approach it.”

Now the tech guys looked really frustrated, but General Ramsey was smiling. “I believe gentlemen is that it comes down to the reason Stark Industries is known world wide. There are good scientists and then there are great ones.”

“But sir! We really need some classes on how to DO these things! We could actually provide a lot more on site support if we had technical knowledge of that level.”

“That’s why we’re here, Lieutenant. We need to make sure that the need is there and we’ll work on pushing through a request for some classes. However Mr. Stark, we don’t want to go to just anybody. After what we’ve seen here today, we want our classes to be held by SI. Can you do that?”

Tony frowned. “We don’t usually do training, but send the request in and I’ll see what I can get done. Be as specific as you can in what you need as honestly, I’m a lot like Peter. Most tech seems obvious to me and I’ll miss out on something you guys want to learn.”

It still took another 20 minutes before the details were hammered out and Rhodey took down several names and phone numbers of people that would be working towards getting the classes in place. Then they had to make the rounds, shaking hands and getting introductions as every single member of the brass there wanted to say they’d met Iron Man, War Machine and Spider-Man personally.

It wasn’t until they were walking out the door that the brass mentioned they’d be having a press conference to announce their big win against Hydra. That then necessitated another phone call to get Tony’s press division working with the military. It was after 9pm that night before they were in the air and headed back to the Tower.

 

Peter snagged Tony’s schedule from FRIDAY, so he could help make sure that he was on time for his 6 million meetings. After watching the man’s schedule for a couple of days, he was surer than ever that he never wanted to run a corporation. He would be much happier in R&D. The meeting he was in now was running over and he’d been standing here waiting on Tony for more than 15 minutes.

Tony looked bored out of his mind but perked up when he saw Peter. He looked him over quickly. “You’re good. Come on. Let’s go or we’ll be late.”

“Late? Your schedule is finally clear for the day.” Peter said in confusion and Tony grinned. 

“I know. That’s why we’re going out for dinner.”

Peter was terribly uncomfortable in the Ferrari. When he was nervous, it was always harder to remain in control of his strength and in this car, he couldn’t even afford to replace a door handle if he ripped it off.

Tony noticed and hit him up about it when they got out of the car. The paparazzi were already there, cameras flashing non-stop as they walked inside.

“So? Want to tell me why you don’t like my car?” Tony asked as they strolled inside the restaurant.

“I do like your car. It’s beautiful and honestly, I never thought I’d see a Ferrari anywhere other than the internet.” Peter told him earnestly.

“Well? What is it then?”

Peter sighed. “It makes me nervous being around such expensive things. When I get nervous, I struggle harder to control my strength and honestly, I couldn’t afford to replace the door handle on that car if I ripped it off by accident.”

Tony blinked, processing Peter’s worry before releasing a bark of laughter. “Never worry about that, Peter. You’ll get comfortable with these things over time and until then, I’ll just get it fixed if you rip off a handle or two. No big deal.”

“It IS a big deal! If I break it, I should pay for it. These are your belongings, not mine.” Peter said firmly. “Aunt May drilled the rules of hospitality into me!”

Tony grinned. “You know, you’re the first person who’s ever worried about breaking anything of mine.”

Peter glanced over at him and frowned. “Now that’s just a sad statement on humanity today, isn’t it?”

Tony laughed and stepped forward. “Table for Stark.”

The restaurant owner himself came rushing out. “Mr. Stark! What a pleasure it is to see you, sir. This way please. Your table is ready.”

They were seated at the table and Tony chatted with the man for a moment before he vanished with their order.

“Was that French?” Peter asked and Tony nodded.

“It was. You need to learn more languages. French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese to start.”

“Sure. I’ll just slip the books under my pillow at night and learn by osmosis.” Peter said. “From what I’ve seen, you have NO spare time. How in the world did you ever manage to be Iron Man?”

Tony grinned. “There was a lot of shit I just didn’t do. I can’t skip out on it now, as you’ll just carry my ass there.”

Peter nodded. “Don’t forget it! I’ve met Ms. Potts now and she’s scary!”

Tony’s grin grew wider. “Everyone says that!”

The wine showed up and they both had a glass poured although neither one took a drink yet. Peter sighed.

“Is it just me or are all of these high class folks gawking at you like the rest of New York? Hey, I watched TV! I thought there were manners and things! What was it Aunt May called it…? Good breeding or something?”

“Nope. You are exactly correct. You see, the restaurant is very careful to leak to only their very closest friends that I have a reservation on a certain day. The place gets full very quickly and then tonight on TMZ, there will be countless interviews with these well dressed people as they cover every aspect of what we had for dinner and how we were dressed.”

Peter sighed. “No wonder I wore a mask as Spider-Man. It’s a good thing you like the spotlight.”

“It is. It won’t be long and I’ll have you enjoying being the center of attention, also.”

Peter raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Really.” He said dryly and Tony laughed.

“Really. It takes practice.”

Their order arrived and the plates were set down carefully. A brief conversation in French later, and they were left alone. Tony looked over to see Peter staring down at his plate with an odd expression.

“Peter? It’s nothing gross, I promise.”

Peter held up his hand. “Don’t eat it. FRIDAY?”

“I’m here, Mr. Parker.” She answered through Tony’s watch. 

“Can you scan the food? Something’s wrong with it.”

Tony flinched and his hands fisted. The beam shot out from his watch and played over the plate.

“It’s a powerful sedative, boss. Very powerful! You’d be out pretty quick.” FRIDAY told him and Tony damn near snarled.

“I just wanted a nice evening to enjoy and this? Again?”

Peter leaned over and touched his hand. “Easy there, big guy. That’s why I’m here. Way too many assassination and kidnapping attempts. Call the police and then we’ll go find the guy who did it. As long as he’s still inside of a ¼ mile, I should be able to track him.”

Tony shook his head. “You’re a damn bloodhound.”

“Far better than a bloodhound.”

“FRIDAY?”

“The police are on their way, boss. Someone should be here in 10 minutes or so. That was the best ETA they could give me.”

Tony flagged down the waiter and told him to escort the police to his table when they arrived. The poor man looked horrified but nodded. It wasn’t long before the owner was back over at the table, babbling in French. Tony listened and nodded, speaking quickly and cutting him off.

The other patrons started whispering when the cops were escorted inside and directly to Tony’s table. A brief explanation later, they’d called for an evidence team and followed as Peter led them deeper into the restaurant. He shoved the door open and the bustling kitchen came to a standstill at the sight of all of them waiting there.

“Peter?”

“Left and up a bit.”

They all turned to see a horrified looking young woman bolt up the stairs.

“Francesca!” The owner yelled and cops took off, running after her. They brought her back down in handcuffs shortly, crying and sobbing in French. She tried to throw herself on Tony when they walked by and the poor restaurant owner looked like he might be having a heart attack.

Peter stepped forward and set his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Tony repeated it in French and the man finally managed to reply, but his color was bad. 

“Peter, he doesn’t want the EMTs, so I guess we’re done here.”

“Alright. Want to reorder and finish the meal? I’m not picking up anything else.”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “You were picking up something when we came in?”

He nodded. “A low level background kind of thing. It happens a lot in crowds, so I didn’t think much of it. Nothing right now. I think everyone has been scared into good behavior.”

Tony waved to the owner and spoke rapidly. The man perked up so fast it was amazing and nodded quickly, dashing into the kitchen. Peter watched with wide eyes.

“Goodness, but it’s easy to forget the kind of power you wield, Tony.”

He threw a smirk over to Peter and they returned to their table. An entire team came rushing out and removed everything, resetting it completely and bowing endlessly. While they were waiting for the second time, Tony found himself pondering the differences between Peter and the others he’d had in his life.

It had always been him having to be the defender, his dates collapsing at the first sign of trouble. Even Pepper couldn’t handle the stress of it and they’d broken up. She was a lot happier with Happy now. But Peter? He’d gotten him kidnapped a few days ago and today, attempted assault by a nutjob – totally unfazed.

“What has you grinning like crazy over there?” Peter asked as he turned his attention back onto him.

“I was just thinking that you’re the first person I’ve taken out that didn’t fold at the first sign of trouble. Rhodey’d probably handle it, but he hates the spotlight and we always order in. Everyone else? A hell of a lot of crying and fainting.”

Peter grinned a bit mischievously. “Want me to start screaming and crying? I bet I could even do a passable faint!”

Tony laughed. “Hell, no! I prefer this way, thank you very much. You’re going to be my dinner partner a lot more often. No one is going to be able to poison me with you on duty!”

When their meal arrived for the second time and Peter gave the all clear, Tony sent the hovering wait staff on their way and started walking Peter through how to handle the different cutlery. You could always read a book on it, but he learned better by doing and he was pretty sure that Peter would too.

They finished up their meal and Peter actually liked it, which surprised them both. When he finally called for the check, the owner himself came over and spoke quickly before bowing. Tony’s eyebrows climbed steadily and he finally nodded.

“We’re good, Peter. This one was on the house.” He said as he rose to his feet, Peter following him. Tony actually stopped outside and spoke briefly to the paparazzi, letting them know what had happened, but that the owner had given them a wonderful replacement meal and that he planned to come back.

Their attention turned to Peter and they asked Tony who he was. “My new Personal Assistant, Peter Parker.”

The cameras flashed endlessly as they waited on the Ferrari to be driven up and they both slid into the car, Tony pulling out and onto the highway. He actually felt… relaxed. Even after the crap that had happened at dinner. Maybe it was because nothing actually happened to either of them or something, but he rather liked this mellow feeling he had. He could get used to it.

 

The two of them were in the lab the next morning. For once, Tony had an entire day free of meetings and the both of them were dressed in comfortable clothes, not suits. Tony grinned remembering how happy Peter had been to pull on his t-shirt and jeans. He pulled up his project files and set to work. He’d given Peter the table at the other end of the lab.

He got FRIDAY to turn up the music and glanced over to find Peter dancing along with it as he flicked through a schematic hovering over his table. Tony blinked and turned fully around to look at what Peter had before him.

“FRIDAY, lower the music to 10%.” He said absently as he got to his feet and walked over, checking the schematic over even more carefully. “Hey Peter? Where did you get this?”

His PA turned absently as he flicked through files on his old tablet computer. “I copied it from the ship, of course.”

Tony felt a grin start to stretch across his face. “You did, did you?”

“Of course! That beam snatched us up from inside a building and we lived through it! What’s to stop them from snatching us again from anywhere at all? I need to get a counter built for it, because… Ugh. Waking up in a detention cell sucks.”

Tony’s grin grew wider. “And by chance did you perhaps copy any other nice files from the ship?”

Peter nodded. “Sure. I made sure to grab the entire design system for their shielding. That whole phase shifting thing… That’s going to take some work to figure out how to break.” Peter said, apparently finding what he wanted and throwing it onto the table with the schematic.

“Anything else?” Tony prompted and Peter shook his head.

“No. The rest of the ship was lowest bidder kind of junk. They spent all their money on those two features and might I say, it almost worked, didn’t it? This needs to be figured out.”

Tony walked forward and slung his arm around Peter’s shoulder. “Man, you have to be the very best PA in the history of the universe. I didn’t even have to tell you to steal those files! You did it on your own! I’m so proud!” He said, wiping away a fake tear and Peter finally laughed.

“Look, you’ve worked with the government. Everyone out there knows that they never get anything done on time! Ever! I can’t leave this to their hands, as I really didn’t like being snatched up by the bad guys’ transporter beam.”

“Damn straight.” Tony said. “Throw me those files and I’ll start working on the shield system.”

Peter pulled the files off and tossed them towards Tony’s table where they suddenly popped up. By the end of the day, they both had a working prototype designed and ready to be built for trial. Unfortunately, Tony received an emergency phone call that sent the two of them off to Tokyo the next morning and it would be three long weeks before they next had a chance to work on it.

 

Tony opened the door to his hotel room, already unbuttoning his suit coat and loosening his tie. They were leaving Tokyo in the morning and tonight had been the last event he had to attend here. He’d picked up an actress for his date tonight. He shut and locked the door behind him, surveying his room. 

Peter had seemed more than happy to avoid the party and when he’d left, he’d been sprawled out on the floor in front of the TV, working on his tablet. He frowned. He needed to get him a StarkPad, because no way should he still be using competing tech!

He checked the living room, but Peter wasn’t there. His belongings were already packed though and sitting neatly next to the couch. He walked over and nudged open the door to the bedroom. He hummed in appreciation at the sight before him. His Spider was sleeping on his back, one hand settled onto that bare stomach. No t-shirt tonight. He’d already found out that Peter tended to forego it when it was hot.

He walked over and started dropping his clothes in the chair as he studied the gorgeous body stretched out on his bed. He’d managed to keep Peter sleeping in his bed through a lot of hard work. Damn, but he’d even had to argue with him when they came to Tokyo and Peter had seen the list of benefits he’d have to attend. His Spider had been pretty adamant that him being here would be beyond awkward if he got lucky.

Tony had derailed his every argument, simply telling him that no one would be coming back to the room with him. Period. Peter had finally shrugged and looked confused. At least here near the end of the trip, he had accepted it. Tony wandered his way into the bath. He needed to scrub the smell of perfume off of his skin before he went to bed.

Ten minutes later, he was dry and dressed in boxers. He yawned as he wandered over to the bed and his sleeping Spider. Peter’s hair was getting a bit too long. He’d have to get them both back in to Enrique’s for a trim and then grinned when he thought of Peter’s face when he brought that up.

Not bothering to slide under the covers either, he just crawled over and did his best to wrap himself around Peter, enjoying the feel of skin to skin contact. He rested his head on his chest and felt himself relax for the first time since he’d left him earlier that night. He finally fell asleep, lulled into slumber by the comforting sound of Peter’s heartbeat.

“-ny? Tony?” Peter’s rather strained voice finally managed to get through to him and he opened his eyes from a really nice dream he’d been having.

“What?”

“M-Maybe you should move over.” Peter stammered out and Tony frowned. He was comfortable and warm and… hard as a fucking rock. It only took him a couple of seconds to finish waking up and realize he had his leg slipped between Peter’s and was rubbing against him. His Spider was hot and bothered and he was still alive. Tony felt a smile crawl across his face.

“Why? I like it right here.”

“W-What?” Peter nearly yelped as Tony pushed a bit harder against him. He then had to groan in appreciation at the feel of all that muscle rippling under him as Peter shivered. He turned his head to look at Peter and shifted his weight more fully onto him. Both of them groaned then at all the lovely friction and Tony smiled as he looked down at the flushed face of Peter. His Spider’s pupils were already blown and he started rocking his hips gently into him, enjoying the way Peter writhed under him with the movement.

“Now? Still want me to move over?” Tony asked him breathlessly. “Cause I still really like it right here.”

“Oh god, no! But Tony…” Peter’s voice trailed off and Tony could see him struggling to get himself under control. Well aware that it would never do for that to happen, he dropped his head and went to work on Peter’s neck, peppering kisses up the straining tendons and stopping at his ear. He spent a few minutes letting his hands roam, pinching and tweaking his nipples until they were erect as he whispered in his ear just how damn good it felt to be on him.

Peter was a panting, desperate wreck of a Spider and Tony was smiling as he descended on that oh so pretty mouth and kissed him hard. They were both rather dazed by the time Tony lifted his mouth away and returned to Peter’s neck.

“T-Tony Stark! Listen to me! I…” Peter’s voice trailed off in a groan as Tony sucked a bruise onto his shoulder. Peter was muttering broken nonsense by the time he finished and Tony felt a thrill of accomplishment.

“I’m listening. Please don’t tell me that you’ve never had sex.” He said before slipping down and fastening his mouth onto one of those pert nipples. Peter bucked hard, nearly dislodging him and Tony growled out, pushing down on his chest with one hand.

“No. Stay still. I’m not hurting you.” He said, returning his attention to the muscled chest stretched out under him.

“T-Tony! People are fragile…” Peter managed to get out, his voice hoarse and Tony stopped as the words sank in.

“Shit. Super-strength.” He finally said and realized that Peter had his hands fisted in the sheets and not touching him. “Give me a second.” Tony said as he slid off the bed and dug through his luggage. He returned with a belt.

“Put your hands above your head. I’m going to tie them together and I want you to just focus on keeping them there for now. The belt is just to give you something to focus on.”

“What?”

“Hands, Peter.” Tony said, gesturing. Peter slowly raised his hands and Tony wrapped the belt around his wrists quickly. He shimmied out of his boxers and made quick work of Peter’s pants and boxers, leaving them both gloriously bare. He settled back into place on his Spider and looked down at him with a smile.

“I mentioned it before didn’t I? You’re never going to learn how to control your strength in unusual situations without practice. This way, focus on the belt when you get worried and let me take care of everything else.” He told him with a grin. “Focus on the belt Peter, when it gets to be too much. That and submission. I’m not going to hurt you and your spider-sense should be able to tell you that.”

Peter slowly nodded and Tony’s grin grew a little wild at the permission given by that nod. He leaned in and kissed Peter hard before he started sliding downwards to worship his Spider properly.

 

Rhodey looked up when he heard the elevator doors swish open. A huge grin spread across his face when he saw Tony stroll out, phone held to his ear and Peter on his heels, on his phone also. He moved over to stand in their way and could hear Tony. Must have been Pepper he was talking to, because Tony was telling her no, no, and no. 

“Free day, Pep. Remember those? I finished up early and by god, I’m taking this day to goof off! There are a million things in the lab I want to be working on!” Tony noticed him then and his face lit up in a smile. “Rhodey! Hey, Pepper. Rhodey’s here. I’ll have to talk to you later.” Tony slipped his phone into his coat and stepped forward, hugging him tightly.

Rhodey hugged him back just as hard before pulling back to study him. “Damn Tony, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen you look this good. You look happy, Tones. It’s a damn good thing to see.”

His friend’s smile grew even more brilliant. “I AM happy, Rhodey.”

Rhodey glanced over at Peter and back to Tony, whose grin turned a bit smug. Rhodey’s eyes widened. “You lucky bastard.”

Tony laughed. “Don’t I know it.”

“Who’s he on the phone to now anyway?”

“Herb Nelson. The guy’s trying to develop some new medical sutures and when he found out Peter made his own webbing, he went crazy. My PA is on the phone like… 10 hours a day holding the hands of R&D.”

“He got time to meet some familiar faces?”

Tony glanced over and saw none other than General Ramsey, a couple of Colonels, three Majors and Lieutenant Harry Masterson and his team. At his questioning look, Rhodey just shook his head

“The classes, remember? The basic class is today, so they’re all here to attend it.”

“Huh. I’m afraid I forgot. I turned it over to Peter to work out. Hey Peter! Tell Herb you’re back in the Tower and can talk later. Look, you’ve got some people you know here.” He said and pointed.

Peter got off the phone and shot him a grateful look before walking forward. Rhodey had to snicker though, because Peter had webbed the luggage together and was towing it all at once.

“I know. He’s like the best thing ever, isn’t he?” Tony said, affection coloring his voice.

“You got it bad, Tones.”

“I do.” Tony said, still smiling. “Come on. Let’s do the meet and greet. I’ve got a lab waiting on me and a free day to burn!”

Peter had already worked his way through most of them, shaking hands and smiling as he spoke to each of them. Tony slipped into place next to him and Rhodey could only shake his head as the two of them charmed his group.

“Rhodey, bring them up for lunch and I’ll get something delivered.” Tony told him and Rhodey nodded.

“What time?”

“Let’s just say 1pm or so?”

“I’ll have them there, Tony. Now, go on and don’t let us keep you from your lab.”

Tony grinned brightly at him and waved, before hustling Peter to the elevator. “FRIDAY! Home, please.”

“Sure thing, boss! Welcome back!” The AI answered and the elevator doors closed behind them.

It was nearly 1pm when Rhodey ushered all of them up to the penthouse. The elevator doors opened and the smell of food wafted out to them. Rhodey could see that the big table had been set up for their meal. However, no sign of Tony or Peter.

“FRIDAY? Where are they?”

“Still in the lab, Mr. Rhodes. Although I did tell Mr. Parker. He’ll get the boss out of there. He’s good at it.”

Rhodey laughed and told the others to go ahead and sit down. “I’ve got to go see what they’re working on that’s so important.”

“Mind if I go with you? I know that I won’t have access to the lab, but it sounds interesting seeing them work.” General Ramsey asked and Rhodey shrugged.

“Sure. Come on.”

FRIDAY took them back to the lab floor and Rhodey led the man down the hall to the glass wall that ran along one side of Tony’s personal lab. Inside, he could see Tony had a strange looking box on the table, wires and pieces hanging out of it and the holographic table was lit up with a huge schematic.

Peter was at the other end and had the briefcase suit sitting on the table. It was flickering between visible and invisible. FRIDAY scanning it each time it did so and Peter was taking notes. Both of them were in old jeans and t-shirts, a far cry from the expensive suits they were in earlier this morning.

“Tell’em I’m here, FRIDAY.”

Tony’s head jerked up and he smiled through the wall, waving at him. ‘Be right there.’ He mouthed and FRIDAY spoke.

“Boss said to tell you that he’ll be right there.”

“Good. Thanks, FRIDAY.”

Tony grabbed up a piece of balled up paper and threw it at Peter’s head. He simply leaned over, letting it go by and snagging it out of the air. Peter turned though and saw them, rising to his feet and Tony laughed. That’s when Peter got an odd look on his face and raised a hand to his head. In seconds, he had both hands pressed against his temples and was telling Tony something.

Tony yelled and FRIDAY’s voice suddenly came over the speaker system.

“Attention all Stark Industry employees! This is an emergency evacuation! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! Proceed to your designated exit immediately!” Her cool voice repeated the message over and over.

Confused, Rhodey looked through the window at Tony, who looked grim and shook his head. The world suddenly took on an odd off yellow color before blackness fell and he knew no more.

 

Tony groaned and brought a hand up to his aching head. It took several moments, but he managed to force his eyes open, finding himself in a literal pile of people. He started shoving limbs out of the way and crawled to his feet, looking around. Peter had been right beside him. He should be here somewhere.

It only took a minute to find Rhodey and General Ramsey. The General went to work getting the rest of his men on his feet, while Rhodey and he worked on getting everyone else up and mobile.

“Tony, it looks like every single person from the Tower is here with us.” Rhodey grumbled but Tony shook his head.

“I don’t see Peter, Rhodey and he was right next to me.”

Rhodey’s eyes widened and he looked around as though expecting him to pop out of nowhere. “Where the hell would he be?”

Tony’s face was grim. “The labs, probably.”

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit!”

“Exactly. Now that I’m thinking about it, I doubt they weren’t expecting either Peter or myself to be in the Tower. We weren’t due in until this evening originally. They spotted Peter, but left me. Is it possible that they didn’t recognize me?” Tony asked quietly.

“Hell, anything’s possible Tones. Everyone gets used to seeing you in a suit. Probably didn’t even check the guy in old jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt.”

Tony looked around. “Where’s Mike Scrivson?” He asked his people and everyone started looking around before a huge, burly black haired man pushed his way to the front.

“I’m here, Mr. Stark.”

“Good. Get everyone organized into something more mobile. You were in the military. Get Rhodey to help you, but I want everyone ready to move in an organized fashion with a moment’s notice.”

“I’ll do it, Mr. Stark. Mr. Rhodes?”

“Sure thing, Mike.”

The two of them headed into the crowd and soon recruited the military men to help Security. It took some work, but they broke them up into squads and assigned squad leaders before they practiced walking in columns, getting on the ground quickly and turning as a group.

Tony spent his time checking over every single inch of the cell they were in, looking for any weakness at all. The fuckin’ thing was nothing but bare metal in here though. No access panels, no covers, no nothing.

“Fuck!” He swore and slammed his hands against the wall, mind spinning over trying to find a solution. He heard a ‘ping’ and looked around, but didn’t see anything. Rhodey was walking up to him now and then he heard it again. ‘Ping’

“Did you hear that?” He asked Rhodey and his friend nodded.

“Yep. What is it?”

“I do-‘ping’…” Tony frowned and started patting his pockets, his eyes widening when he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

‘ping’ 

“It’s your phone! Do you have signal?”

“No.”

‘ping’ Tony’s mind ran through possibilities before he started to smile. ‘ping’

“It’s Peter.”

“What?!” 

“He’s trying to connect.”

“You just said you got no signal.”

“Yeah, but StarkTech can do a lot of things no one expected. He’s trying to get a connection using Bluetooth. If he can get it, it wouldn’t be that hard to move on to wi-fi.” ‘ping’

The military men and his department heads came walking up to Tony and Rhodey. His phone ‘ping’ed several minutes more while Tony explained what was going on before the screen suddenly flickered and a text message popped up.

HO-LY CRAP! I’ve written some strange code in my life, but this one takes the cake. Tell me you’re there.-Peter

You did it.-Tony

*Takes a bow* Thank you, thank you. Let me get voice working. One minute more please.-Peter

His screen flickered twice but the phone suddenly rang and everyone around Tony froze. He picked up.

“Good job, PA. Tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m okay. Now, I’ve got a map of this place. Big damn place by the way, that I’ll be sending to your phone.”

“You in the labs?”

“How did you guess?” Peter said dryly. “It wasn’t nice at all, but I found Storm and Wolverine here too. They’re not in good shape.”

“Fuck. We’re locked in a featureless cell.”

“Detention level 2, cell 8. I found you already. But if you would be so kind as to hold your phone up for a minute, I need to yell and pray that it’s with you.”

Tony blinked at his phone for a second before holding it up and it was silent for a few seconds before he heard Peter yell, “BOO!”

There was a murmur from the crowd and they parted, letting him see a very familiar red and gold briefcase sitting on the floor. 

“Son of a BITCH! You grabbed it?”

“I did. I take it that it’s visible now?”

“Oh, yeah. I can run it manually, but I really need FRIDAY. Can you get a wi-fi connection to the Tower from here?” Tony asked him and Peter snorted.

“Why don’t you just ask for one of the moons of Jupiter while you’re at it?”

Tony felt himself smile. “I’ll get the armor on while you work on it, okay?”

“Absolutely.”

His phone suddenly beeped and showed multiple files downloaded. He handed the phone to Rhodey and activated the armor. It unfolded much slower than usual, wrapping itself around him carefully and finally locking into position. Rhodey was grinning hugely when it finished.

“Somehow, I don’t think they’re gonna be ready for you, Tones.”

“I should hope not. I’m pissed.” He said as he flipped open the small compartment on his arm designed to hold his phone. He plugged it in quickly and waited, snapping the cover back into place. It was a couple of minutes wait before he heard static and then the line cleared.

“Boss?” FRIDAY’s voice came over the line. “I’m reading the briefcase armor has been activated. Is that correct?”

“It is. Integrate please.”

“Integrating.” A brief pause. “Systems check green. All systems online.”

“Awesome. Can you make sure to keep the line open to Peter?”

“I’m still here, Tony.”

“Good. Let me pull up these files and let the military men go to work.” Tony turned, finding that the military had gathered up next to him again. “FRIDAY, give them the base plans.”

There were multiple beeps as everyone’s phones suddenly went off and Tony held out a hand, broadcasting a hologram of the base. Their location was marked, as well as Peter’s. His Spider had already indicated hallway traps, weapons emplacements and known soldier locations on the maps.

Rhodey and his buddies gathered up around the hologram and Tony put his hand on his shoulder. “Just tell me what you need me to do, okay? All I ask is that we get Peter.”

Rhodey nodded. “We will.”

“Hey, Peter?”

“What is it, Tony?”

“How much control do you have over this base anyway?”

“I’m working on it. I have alarms at 100%, cameras at 100%, weapons emplacements at 57% and climbing with an estimated 100% in 4 more minutes, door locks at 83%, defensive and offensive systems at 43% with an estimated time of completion at 8 minutes, power generation is at 27% with an ET of 100% in 11 minutes, general base systems though I’ve only just started on, 11% and estimated to finish in 20 minutes.”

Tony felt himself grin. That was Peter. Never one to sit around and wait on a rescue when he could get himself out of trouble. He looked up and realized that the military were all staring at him.

“What? You thought he wouldn’t be working on it or something?”

“Or something…” General Ramsey said a bit weakly. “I’m starting to understand even better now how important an outstanding technician can be to field work.”

“Give us 8 more minutes and Peter will be able to keep anything from going off. You’ll still have to take out the soldiers as we go through, but he’ll be able to tell us where they are and how many there are.”

Ramsey nodded. “Eight minutes. We can do that. Can you get us out of here?”

“Sure. Peter will open the door when we’re ready.”

The General finalized his plan and Tony had FRIDAY record it and feed him directions. Peter was giving him intel and he used his repulsors to drop every soldier that he came across. He had a lot of personnel that needed weapons and body armor and he wasn’t feeling very picky.

It was a slow, painful slog through the giant base. Soon enough though, he had Rhodey and the others with him in the front as he plowed through enemy troops, dropping everyone he saw. When he finally saw the entrance to the labs, he whooped.

“Peter! I’m right outside.”

“And I’m right inside. Door’s unlocked.”

He saw the light change to green and let Rhodey know he was going in. He stepped in and found blood splattered around the room. There was a pile of webbed up people on the floor across the room, most of them groaning and some giant metal dog crate looking cages that all had the doors opened. He saw two bloody people lying on the tables in the work area and FRIDAY filled him in.

“Scans indicate Logan Howlett, aka Wolverine and Ororo Munroe, aka Storm are the people on the tables.”

“Good. Let Rhodey know not to attack them, FRIDAY.”

“Done, boss.”

“Peter?”

“In here.”

He rounded the tables and found himself in an office, yet another asshole in a white coat webbed to the floor. Peter was sitting behind the desk and Tony immediately frowned at him. He was pale and far too stressed looking.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, to start with, I hurt these guys Tony. Some of them pretty badly. And… I can’t bring myself to care which is a bit worrying. I came around enough to react when they were strapping me to a table out there and did my best to drop all of them. Not before one of them shot me though before I could get free from the table. It’s taken nearly an hour for the damn sedative to wear off enough that I’m not falling asleep sitting here.”

“You’re shot?! Where?”

Peter waved his hand. “It went right through and I’m already healing. Just doesn’t feel very pleasant, as I’m sure you’re aware of.”

“Show me, Peter!” Tony growled and walked behind the desk, taking in the pool of blood under the chair. “Shit!”

“I’m not bleeding anymore. Calm down, okay?” Peter said and Tony knelt down, turning Peter’s chair to see the blood soaked T-shirt. He lifted it gently and saw the damage, gritting his teeth to keep from cursing. That had been a large caliber bullet, damn it!

“FRIDAY! Tell Rhodey to get me someone in here that knows how to patch up a bullet hole. There’s got to be some medical supplies in that other room somewhere.”

“I’m on it, boss.”

Less than a minute and Rhodey, the General and two other soldiers appeared, dragging a med kit with them. Tony got Peter to sit on the edge of the desk to let them work. 

“Hey Tony, keep an eye on the general base systems hack for me. There’s a guy on the next floor up that keeps trying to reverse hack and I’ve got a screen running to fool him. Third tab over.”

Tony nodded and pulled over a second chair, setting down and opening up the tab. He saw immediately what Peter meant and set to work keeping it running.

“Did you see Logan and Ororo?”

“I did.”

“They’re good people. They also need medical attention. Can someone look at them?”

“We can, son.” Ramsey told him. “As soon as they finish patching you up.”

“Thanks.” Peter said quietly. The bandages were soon wrapped firmly around him and he dropped his bloody shirt back down, moving back around the desk.

“Did you take care of his weird self?”

“I did. Copy the code over and we’ll go over it when we get back to the Tower.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

Rhodey came in, hands full of snacks from the vending area down the hall and the guy behind him had drinks stuffed under both arms. All of it was dropped in front of Peter.

“Get busy, Peter. You’re going to need to eat.”

“Thanks, Mr. Rhodes.” Peter said as he grabbed up the first snack and ripped it open. They all waited as Peter watched his terminal while the two mutants in the other room were being treated.

“Tony? We’re at 100% system wide now. Is the plan to go ahead and round up all the rest of these guys and then call for help?”

“It is. Do you have the map pulled up?”

“Yeah.” Peter tabbed over and Tony could see the screen.

“Update his file with the route we’ll be taking, FRIDAY.” The screen changed to reflect cleared areas and the route they’d be taking from here on.

“Peter? We’ll be leaving several guards here with you. We can’t afford to let anything happen to you.”

“Alright. But if they could stay in here it would be better. Logan heals quickly and I’d rather he didn’t wake up with someone he didn’t know in the room.” Peter told them and they all nodded.

“We can do that.”

To say that everyone was motivated when they finally moved out again was an understatement. Word had passed quickly that Peter had been sitting there bleeding out from a gunshot wound as he worked for them and now everyone wanted this over quickly.

It wasn’t though. Over quickly. It still took nearly 4 more hours to completely secure the base and get all of the prisoners locked up in their own detention cells. When they finally finished up though, Tony settled into the command center and called up communications, patching General Ramsey back through to the US.

It was rather amusing to see so many pissed off military folks. They were all stuck in a little piss-ant country, not far from Wakanda actually. A thing he was trying desperately to not think about. T’challa though actually contacted him and offered his country as sanctuary. With no way to not accept and not look suspicious, Tony finally agreed. His people would be loaded up and taken to Wakanda where they’d wait on transport back to the US. The first US soldiers were due in less than a half hour and Rhodey and the others would get transport back with them.

Getting off the phone with Pepper as she finished up the arrangements for him, he made his way back down to Peter. He needed to get him and the mutants up to the landing bay so they could all leave together.

When he walked in this time, Logan was awake. He still looked like shit, but he was up and sitting next to Storm.

“Hello, Mr. Howlett.” Tony ventured and the man tipped his head and sniffed.

“Tony Stark, right? You’re Peter’s?”

Tony grinned under his face mask. “Why yes, yes I am.”

The man actually cracked a smile. “It’s good. He deserves a good person in his life.”

“Why thank you. We have transport coming in just under 18 minutes. We’re going to Wakanda and then back to the US. Did you want to go with us or with the US military?”

Logan frowned. “Peter’s going with you?”

“He is.”

“With you then.”

“Alright. Is she going to be awake or do we need to push her up there?”

Logan sighed. “I’ll carry her.”

“That’ll work. Let me get Peter.”

He found Peter finishing up copying all of his code onto a tablet computer he’d found in the office and waited as he finished up. He stood up, still too pale and Tony could hear his stomach growling from here. The soldiers left here all said their goodbyes as they left the room and Peter called out to the mutants when they walked back into the lab.

“Hey Logan! Did you meet Tony?”

“I did, kid. He smells like you.”

“Well, I should hope so.” Peter said archly and Logan laughed, a deep rumble of sound. “You ready to go?”

“Hell, yeah. Shitty place to vacation.”

Logan explained how they’d been caught as they walked up to the landing bay. Apparently mutant discrimination was a lot more widespread than Tony had realized, because Logan and Ororo had left the Professor’s mansion to look for work. With no luck. Starving mutants really didn’t stand much of a chance and pow – here they were in spa hell.

“After Rogers defected, to say that bad became terrible would be an understatement. The video of the two of them beating the shit out of you, didn’t help either Stark. Everyone thought that if you were a mutant or superhuman, then you MUST be an unreliable, backstabbing bastard.” Logan growled out and Tony nodded. 

“I know. Rhodey and I have been working on it with the military already. We introduced them to Peter.”

Logan’s eyebrows shot up and he glanced over, nodding. “Good plan. Kid’s hot as hell, smarter than damn near anybody and as decent a human being as you’d find. He also appeals to most because he’s so damn graceful. Bet they wanted to watch, didn’t they?”

Peter huffed and rolled his eyes.

Tony nodded. “They did and it did work. We’ve already made inroads on it. I need to get the public side working on it, but DAMN, it’s just been one shitstorm after another.”

They made it into the landing bay and Rhodey was waiting for them. Tony hugged his friend once more.

“Be careful. Are you coming back to the Tower?”

“I am. They’re going to want a debrief again on this one.”

“Can they do it at the Tower? We’ve got the data, but I’ve got more than a thousand people here I need to get back on US soil.”

“They can. General Ramsey explained that you guys weren’t going anywhere. We’ll be there probably not long after you guys get there.”

“Good.”

“Make sure you eat, Peter! I can hear your stomach growling from over here!” Rhodey chided.

“Believe me, I will! I just need to find someplace WITH food.” Peter grumbled and Rhodey hugged him too.

“I’ll see you soon. You guys be careful.”

“Of course we will.” Tony said before ushering his little group up the ramp onto the last jet. “Mike? Did we get everyone?”

“We did, sir.”

Tony helped Peter and Logan get Ororo settled into a chair and buckled in before scooting over and removing his phone from the armor and deactivating it. It folded up into the briefcase once more and he slid it under the seat, dropping into the chair next to Peter and buckling in.

It was a short flight to Wakanda and thankfully, T’Challa wasn’t there to greet them. They were escorted into hotels across town, just barely having enough space to fit, even with them double and triple bunking. Thankfully, it was only for one night, as the SI transports were due in at 8am tomorrow morning.

As soon as they got their room, Peter stopped him with an odd look on his face. He held out his hand and in his palm was a gold ear clip, meant to fasten on the shell of his ear.

“What? Jewelry?”

Peter frowned. “I’ve never really thought about precognition much, but this one… I had a really terrible need to finish it Tony. I did when we were in Japan, which is why they look rather oriental.”

Tony grinned and picked it up. “I’m touched.”

“FRIDAY? Scan it for him please and display the schematic.”

A beam of light shot from his watch and washed over the gold ear clip before a holographic schematic was projected. Tony studied it for a minute before frowning.

“Peter? Is this what I think it is?”

“Hopefully, it will shield your mind from intruders Tony. No real way to test it without a trial by fire so to speak, but that’s the third generation. The two previous still made my spider-sense go off.”

Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Are you telling me that you not only made them in advance, but have carried them with you the entire time?”

Peter nodded. “I just didn’t know WHY. But now that we’re here, you’re going to wear it. No excuses.”

Tony nodded and clipped it to his ear. “I won’t take it off.”

He could almost see the stress fall off of Peter and he pointed at him. “Yours had better be on as soon as you’re out of the shower. I mean it! I’ll bandage you back up as soon as I get back.”

His Spider let out a slow breath and nodded. “I’ll do it. Be careful.”

“Always.”

It was later that evening before he had everyone settled. FRIDAY was keeping up with the billeting locations, so he could make sure he didn’t forget anyone. Peter was showering and he had just visited the boutique downstairs to buy the both of them a new set of clothes to wear. It was being delivered to his room right now. Making arrangements for dinner for all of his people, he was finally satisfied. He hung up the phone and turned to leave the boutique.

“Tony?” A quiet voice called out and Tony flinched, spinning on his heel to find himself staring at none other than Sam Wilson. He pointed a finger at him.

“That’s Mr. Stark to you. Or better yet, let’s just not speak at all.” He said quietly. “I’m not in the mood.”

The older man looked sad. “You’re looking mighty well, Mr. Stark. We had heard that you were near death but after a week or so you were released.”

“I was near death. Not that it’s any of your damn business.”

Sam sighed. “We all got our belongings, Mr. Stark. I’d thank you, but really… I just want to go home.”

Tony shrugged. “Turn yourself into the nearest US Embassy and stand trial. Maybe you’ll get off with a light sentence.”

“Turn himself in?! For what? For doing the right thing?” None other than Clint Barton slipped out of the darkness of the hallway, his face twisted in a snarl. “You’re the one causing the problems! Cap had it all under control!”

Tony prayed that FRIDAY was getting Peter as it wasn’t looking too good. He was right as Clint chose that moment to hit him with a spinning kick that sent him through the large window and crashing out onto the street. Tony rolled back to his feet quickly, bleeding from dozens of small cuts and well aware of the handful of horrified bystanders watching.

He held up his hands. “Look. I’m only here one night. You guys can do what you want to; just leave me and my employees alone, okay?”

“No. It’s not okay. I miss Vision.” Wanda’s voice rolled out of the darkness and Tony watched her face wrinkle in concentration. He didn’t feel a damn thing and he watched as everyone looked confused for the longest time.

“What the hell, Wanda?” Natasha’s voice this time and Tony grimaced. The gang’s all here.

“It’s not working. His mind is… protected.” She said in confusion.

“Well, we’ll just do this the old fashioned way then. I’ll beat him into agreement.” A deeper voice growled out. “Steve’s miserable here and deserves to be back in the US. You guys all said that he can get it done.”

The Winter Soldier came out of the alley in front of him and Tony froze, his mind flashing back to Siberia and pain… It was only for a moment before he felt a familiar arm slip around his shoulders.

“Oh, MY! Sugar plum, why didn’t you tell me you had friends coming over. Darlin’ I’ve already got the bubble bath run and everything!” Peter’s voice was slightly higher than normal and he leaned in, pecking him on the cheek. “I even pulled out that pink number that you love so much!”

Tony felt himself settle with the comfort of Peter next to him and he managed a grin back. “The PINK one?! Really, dear? That one’s always been my favorite although the bunny outfit with the tail is a close second.”

Peter’s nose wrinkled. “The tail itches, hot stuff. I prefer the pink number with all the lace. And the ropes.”

Tony wiggled his eyebrows. “The ropes! I had forgotten! How could I have forgotten? You really are going all out for me tonight, aren’t you gorgeous?”

“I sure am, honey cakes.” Peter said and gave him another peck.

Bucky growled. “Shoulda known you’d be a fag.” Was all he said before he charged. Unfortunately, Bucky didn’t know he wasn’t a match for a Spider though. Not even an injured one. Peter had him flipped and on the ground, webbed up in a cocoon in seconds, while Tony shot Clint and Wanda with his repulsor watch. Sam and Natasha both held up their hands.

“I’m not interested in fighting, Mr. Stark.” Sam told him and Tony nodded.

“Good. FRIDAY, get T’Challa on the phone for me.”

“Will do, boss.”

His phone rang moments later and Tony picked it up.

“Hey, it’s me. It seems that some of my old team mates decided that I must pay for my crimes and they were judge and jury. Uh-huh. They’re down. We’re just outside the hotel in the street, in front of god and the universe. I know. It’s damn hard to repair the image of superhumans and mutants with shit like this going on. Um-hm.” Tony leaned over. “Hey gorgeous! Got anymore of your gizmos?”

Peter nodded. “It was cheaper to do 10 at once, so yes.”

“T’Challa, we’ll talk once you’re here. Peter and I are just going to hang around and wait.”

It was only a matter of minutes before a furious T’Challa strode down the road, his personal guard trailing behind him. He stopped in front of Tony and bowed his head.

“I have been shamed. I guaranteed your safety here in my country and you have been attacked.”

“Peter?”

He tossed him an ear piece and Tony handed it over to T’Challa. “Put it on. Let’s see if she’s been working you over too.”

T’Challa stared down at the little ear clip before picking it up. “Working me over…?”

“It seems the Scarlet Witch doesn’t respect the sanctity of someone’s mind, King. Peter made those and they worked. She couldn’t affect me.”

T’Challa picked one up and clipped it on his ear; he suddenly swayed and almost fell before he recovered. His face cleared and he looked astonished.

“This… She has been influencing me in a thousand ways, Tony. It is easy to see the trails left in my mind from her work. Never would I have allowed them open access to the city. They are wanted criminals and I support the Accords. However, I saw her this morning after your call and without even hesitating, I granted them access. This is… This is unforgivable!” He roared. Tony just nodded.

“Wilson and Romanov didn’t attack us. They apparently knew the plan though.”

“I will deal with this. Do you have more of these devices? I must make sure she cannot influence the guards.”

“Peter?” 

His Spider rose to his feet and walked over, digging out the last 7 and giving them to Tony. 

“Here, T’Challa. Seven more and I can give you the schematic to make more if you’d like. It’s Peter’s design, but I’ll compensate him for it. You don’t have to worry.”

“I don’t want to be paid for it!” Peter cut in. “Messing with someone’s head is sick business. Everyone should have access to that because… Damn. Some things just shouldn’t be done!”

“I am in agreement.” T’Challa said as he picked up the other ear pieces.

“Got your phone? I’ll have FRIDAY send it to you.”

He nodded and T’Challa’s phone beeped in his pocket. “It’s done. Now, if you would, please send me the bill for the damage to the building. Never would have happened if I hadn’t of been here.”

“Nonsense. You have just given us the priceless gift of having our own minds back! I will cover the cost of the repairs, Tony. Now, could I perhaps be introduced to your friend?”

Tony leaned over and threw his arm around Peter. “This is Peter Parker, aka Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and my Personal Assistant.”

“Peter Parker? I have heard this name. Our military contacts spoke most highly of you, Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Parker. Well done. It is going to take much more work to repair the image of superhumans.”

“Don’t I know it. But, we’re going to keep working on it. Keep our eyes on the future and all that.”

T’Challa handed out the earcuffs and pulled out his phone, forwarding the schematic and a request to build several hundred immediately before sending his men in to pick up the former Avengers.

“Now, what is this I have heard about you being kidnapped?”

“It’s true. They appear to be a very well organized and funded division of Hydra. They have an actual working transporter beam, just like off Star Trek. It can snatch you right out of a building, no problem. They took everyone in the Tower. They also have a fully phased cloaking field. Their ships are not detectable.”

T’Challa’s guard all started muttering at his words and T’Challa looked grave. “This base is near our border isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Chances are good then that our airspace has been violated.”

Tony nodded and T’Challa’s frown grew fierce. “This transporter beam took you from inside the building?”

“It did. It’s the second time we’ve seen it used. The first time, they got Peter and a squad of black ops.”

T’Challa looked over at Peter. “You all are okay?”

“Of course. We took over the giant ass plane that took Peter the first time and this time, we took over the whole damn base. Don’t mess with Stark Industries!” Tony said with a smile.

T’Challa smiled back. “Is it safe for me to assume that you are already developing a work around for these issues?”

Peter laughed and Tony groaned. “Safe to assume? We got back from Japan nearly half a day earlier to finish the prototype. Guess what was sitting on the bench in the lab when they snatched us?”

“I believe I will need to make a trip to New York soon then. These items will be required if we are to remain free and autonomous.”

Tony held out his hand. “You’re welcome anytime.”

They shook and T’Challa tipped his head. “Be well. Perhaps I will be able to see you in the morning before you leave, but if not, I will be in New York soon.”

“We’ll be there.”

Tony hustled Peter back into the hotel. They stopped only long enough to pick up a first aid kit and went to their room. Peter spent some time cleaning out each of his cuts and pulling glass out. The cuts were healing rapidly though and Tony couldn’t help but grin as they closed up almost before his eyes. Peter shoved him into the shower and answered the door, getting the food set up.

As soon as Tony came out of the bathroom, the two of them devoured their meal, not leaving so much as a crumb. Tony re-wrapped Peter’s wound after poking around it carefully. He herded his Spider into bed after that one, reminding FRIDAY to get him up by 5am. Sleep claimed him in seconds.

 

It took most of the day to get everyone transported back, checked over and then sent home. Ms. Potts gave everyone the next couple of days off, with orders to report back to work on Monday. Tony was frowning though as he looked around, trying to find his PA. His Spider had disappeared not long after they’d gotten back to the Tower.

“FRIDAY? Where’s Peter?”

“Just down the hall, boss. He’s talking to Ms. Potts and Mr. Scrivson.”

Tony yawned and followed her directions, finding them standing in the hall, just as FRIDAY had said. He walked up and nudged Peter over to get into the circle with them. Peter smiled, listening to Scrivson and Pepper talk. It only took a minute before he got it.

“Oh, you want to hire Logan, Mike?”

“I do, sir. The man has an extensive background in military operations and should work like a human threat monitor for us. His senses are so extreme he can smell gunpowder, explosive residue, you name it. I want him patrolling all public access areas of the Tower.”

Pepper sighed. “I don’t think there will be a big problem with it. It’s just… Is he controllable? He’s not going to go berserk and kill a bunch of people is he?”

Tony and Mike’s jaws hit the floor as they gaped at her, but Peter… He shut down and immediately backed away, turning and heading for the elevator at a quick pace. Tony felt his fury rising as he pulled himself back together.

“Virginia Potts, before this day I would have defended you against anyone that called you prejudiced. But now…? You just said that you’re worried Logan is ‘not controllable’! We all know that you meant it’s because he’s a mutant! Potts! Any individual person in this building can go crazy, plan an attack and kill a lot of people if they want to. Being superhuman or a mutant has nothing to do with it!” He damn near snarled.

“With all due respect Ms. Potts, most of my people are ex-black ops. You don’t get any more highly trained or deadly than we are. I have never heard you say such a thing before! And right in front of Peter!” Mike said angrily

She blushed. “I keep forgetting he’s superhuman. I’ll have to apologize to him.”

“I seriously doubt he’s going to want to hear it, Ms. Potts.” Tony told her quietly. “He’s constantly on guard against letting anyone know what he is because of how you just reacted!”

“It’s a perfectly legitimate fear!”

“Legitimate fear…?” Tony and Mike both echoed in astonishment.

Tony pointed his finger at her. “I believe it’s time that I take a leave of absence from the company. I think a nice, year long sabbatical will work wonders for me. And of course, my highly unreliable PA and his mutant friends will be accompanying me. Expect the paperwork on your desk shortly.” He spun on his heel and headed for the elevator. He could hear Mike arguing with Pepper behind him.

Safely in the elevator, he spoke.

“FRIDAY, make arrangements to get Stark Manor ready for us to move in. I want the lab moved also, along with the bots.”

“I’m on it boss! You can count on me!”

“Where’s Peter?”

“In the lab, boss.”

“Take me there.”

He found his Spider working on the holographic table. A schematic rapidly taking shape as he worked. Tony simply pulled up a stool and propped his head up on a hand and let him work. God knows, he used tech as a release valve all the time, too.

He watched his Spider design for more than a half hour before he pulled out a Pad and sent the notices out to the Board that he would be taking a year off, effective immediately. He sent it out to everyone and set the Pad down, returning his attention to Peter. He studied the schematic he was building and finally got up to get a closer look. Eyes widening, he let his breath out in a hiss.

“This… Peter? Is this actually a type of anti-grav?”

“Somewhat. I want the anti-grav effect, but I don’t want it free floating. I need it to stay where I put it, so I’m adding in a bit more.” Peter said absently as he built. Tony slid his arms around Peter’s waist and buried his face in the crook of his neck.

“I adore you.” He said softly and Peter froze.

“What?”

“You heard me. You’re MY Spider and I adore you. We even share the same coping method of using tech to keep us from going crazy.” Tony peppered kisses up Peter’s neck. “I’m sorry you had to hear such an ugly thing from someone I thought was one of the most open minded people I’ve ever met.”

Peter’s breath went out in shuddering huff. “You’d think I’d be used to it as often as I hear it. It was just… shocking. I mean, I’ve spoken to her before and she never let on that she didn’t want to be around superhumans and mutants.”

“I know. I’ve put in for a year off effective immediately. They can handle all this shit without me. I’m taking you and Logan and Ororo to Stark Manor. We’re going to spend some time simply being for a while. I need to think about what needs to be done next.”

Peter turned his head to look at him over his shoulder. “This company runs on your back, Tony. Without you, they won’t have any product or even much interest. People are interested in YOU, not Stark Industries. They’ll fall apart without you.”

“I don’t care.”

Peter turned all the way around and slid his arms around his waist, hugging him gently. “You don’t need to do this. I’m fine. I just needed a chance to collect myself.”

“Actually, I DO need to do this. I want to keep working on bettering the image of superhumans and mutants, and that means good PR. If Ms. Potts will say such a thing to your face, what will she say to the press?”

Peter sighed and relaxed into him. “Hey Tony?”

“What is it, Peter?”

“I adore you, too. Please… If you ever decide to move on, give me the chance to get out of your way first.”

Tony grumbled. “No moving on, Peter. I told you before. You’re mine and I’m not sharing. We’re going to spend the next year building tech and making plans on how to help everyone Steve Rogers kicked in the head when he decided to go his own way.”

 

Tony yawned and made his way to the kitchen. Butterfingers went rolling by and he found himself smiling at the sight of the bot. Peter had asked him if they could have the run of the house and Tony found himself agreeing. All of them could handle a bot if one went wild, so they’d been mobile ever since. They’d explored every single inch of the house they could get into. FRIDAY opened a lot of doors for them.

Strolling into the kitchen, he found himself happily surprised.

“Rhodey my man! What brings you to Stark Manor this fine morning?”

Rhodey smiled at him over his cup of coffee. “This happy, smiling you is still such a nice thing to see. I take it life is still good then?”

Tony poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table across from him. “It’s wonderful.” He said honestly. “Did you see Peter this morning?”

“I did. He said to tell you that your breakfast is in the oven and if you don’t eat every bite of it, he’ll know. His spies are everywhere.”

Tony sniffed. “FRIDAY’ll squeal.”

“I heard that, boss!” She chipped in and Tony grinned.

“Actually, I’m here for the classes the military wants, remember?”

Tony nodded. “They were already set up.”

“Yeah, but now that you and Peter aren’t at SI, the military doesn’t want them. They want the classes to be held under your supervision and with your oversight. You and Peter don’t realize how damn many fans you have in the brass anymore.”

Tony frowned. “This is supposed to be my year off to do nothing but whatever I want to! I don’t have any classrooms here in the Manor.”

“You have the two big conference rooms near the front. They’d work.”

Tony sighed. “Classes… Do I look like an electronics school or something?”

Peter chose that moment to come wandering in. “Good morning, Mr. Rhodes.” He laid a StarkPad down in front of Tony and walked over to the oven. Peter was pulling out Tony’s breakfast and getting it ready, while Tony picked up the Pad with a grin.

“You finished it?”

“I did.”

Tony smiled in delight as he turned it on and then he looked across the table at Rhodey. “Watch this shit!” He tapped an icon on screen and held the tablet in the air where he wanted it before letting go. It hung there without support as he hit another icon and a holographic keyboard suddenly appeared in front of Tony.

Rhodey’s jaw fell open and he leaned forward, running his hand through the air all around the tablet.

“What.the.hell…?”

“Peter’s latest idea. Pretty cool, huh? He did his and then he had to rework the power system. Battery life went down by 21% when using these functions. After his rework, battery life improved by 40%, so we now have a net increase in battery life and two cool as hell new functions.” Tony said proudly.

“Hey, Peter?” Rhodey said as Peter set the plate down in front of Tony.

“What is it?”

“Can you modify my StarkPad too? I want one that does that!”

“How about we swap? I’ve got a couple that are done already.”

“That’ll work.” He said, eyeing the tablet hanging in the air in appreciation.

“So? Were you right? You’re going to have to give classes?” Peter asked him and Tony frowned while Rhodey started laughing.

“I should have known you already had an idea!”

Tony shrugged. “I’ve been working with the military for years now, Rhodey. It rubs off on you.”

“I have a suggestion then.” Peter said. “Can we ask Ororo to be the instructor? She knows how to hack and she knows the basics of taking out electronics. She used to be on the X-Men and she taught science at Professor X’s school.”

Tony perked up. “Really?”

“FRIDAY, send Tony Ororo’s resume.”

His StarkPad beeped and Tony leaned over, touching an icon. He read through it quickly and finally nodded.

“It looks good, Peter. Think she’ll want to do it?”

Peter looked at him. “Tony, she was starving. She would LOVE to have a steady job!”

“You’re right. What was I thinking? Rhodey! I’ll be hiring Ms. Munroe! She’s more than qualified to cover electronic warfare.”

“Ms. Munroe…?”

“She was one of the mutants we rescued from the base, remember? Logan was the other one. FRIDAY, ask Ms. Munroe to come to the kitchen. I need to offer her a job and introduce her to Rhodey.”

“Will do, boss.”

Tony dug into his breakfast while they waited. His back was to the door, so he got a nice view of Rhodey’s face when she walked in. 

“Rhodey? Your mouth’s hanging open.” Tony said quietly and his mouth closed with a snap. 

Rhodey stood up quickly and pulled out a chair for her, offering her his hand. “Colonel James Rhodes, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Ororo smiled and shook his hand. “Ororo Munroe. It’s good to meet you also. You are Mr. Stark’s friend, correct?”

“I am.”

“Peter has told us all about you.” She said and Rhodey grinned a bit giddily before sitting back down. She saw the hovering StarkPad and smiled.

“You finished it then?”

“I did. I’ve gotten several of them done. They’re in the lab. Come by and we’ll swap them out.”

“I will. Thank you.”

“That is a lovely dress, Ororo.” Tony told her. “I’m not sure how anyone can look so put together this early in the morning.”

She smiled. “Years of teaching school, Mr. Stark. You have to get up early when you’re dealing with children.”

“Well, you look fabulous. Now, I’d like to offer you a job. Peter, lay it out for her.”

Tony finished his breakfast as Peter explained what the military wanted in detail and that they wanted the classes to be held by someone associated with Tony Stark.

“And I would qualify for such a position?” She finally asked and Peter nodded.

“It was an SI employee who was teaching the first class that was so terribly interrupted. You’ll actually be working for Tony, so that’s even better.”

“Mr. Rhodes? Is there a schedule of when they want these classes held? Or how big they want the class size to be?”

Silence. Peter and Tony traded a look, starting to grin.

“Mr. Rhodes?” She tried again and Tony burst out laughing.

“Rhodey! Turn your brain back on man! She’s asking you questions!”

Flustered, Rhodey spluttered for a second. “Sorry! I was just… a…” His voice trailed off and Ororo smiled at him.

“Perhaps we can work out these details together then? Once I know what you need, then I’ll have a better idea of how long it will take to pull the class together.”

Rhodey’s smile grew huge and he leaped straight to his feet. “I’d love it. Come on. Let’s find someplace we can sit around and hash out those details!” He said quickly and she stood up. 

“Of course.” They left the kitchen and Peter and Tony watched them leave in silence. 

“Think he’ll have a problem with her being a mutant?” Peter asked.

Tony slid his eyes over to Peter. “Why would he? He’s a superhuman now also.”

Peter met his eyes and smiled. “I keep forgetting that.”

Tony leaned over and kissed him, long and deep. “Never forget it. We’re a team.”

“Mm-hmm.” Peter hummed as he eyed Tony’s mouth. “We need to finish up the install of the transporter beam blocker. It’s still sitting down there, only halfway in.”

“Later…”

 

“Peter? You ready?” Tony called out and his Spider came rushing out of the bedroom, fastening up his suit coat.

“I’m ready. I guess. You know I’m probably going to forget which fork to use and all that.” Peter told him nervously as he fastened his cuff to his ear. Tony looked him over in appreciation before leaning in and giving him a gentle kiss.

“You look fabulous and you won’t forget. You’ve been dining out with me for months now.” He told him fondly. “No need to be nervous. These are Rhodey’s people and they all know who you are.”

Peter checked Tony’s ear for the cuff and nodded. “You’re the one that looks perfectly edible. It’s going to be a struggle to keep my hands to myself.”

They both stopped and loaded up their StarkPads and phones. Peter dropped his web shooters and a handful of extra ear cuffs into his pocket also. They’d both learned to never leave home unprepared. They were met in the Front Hall by Rhodey and Ororo. They were all attending the Military ball tonight that was being held to raise money for wounded soldiers.

“Wow! You guys look great!” Peter told them. He stopped and pecked Ororo on the cheek. “Rhodey’s a lucky guy.”

“Don’t I know it, Peter!” Rhodey agreed. “Let the rest of the world be jealous!”

They all laughed and Peter handed her an ear cuff. At her questioning look, he shrugged. “We wear them all the time in public anymore. It’s better to be safe than have someone take over our minds and send us on a rampage.” Peter told her. 

“I… I find that I’m not thinking far enough ahead most of the time.” She grabbed one of them from Peter and fastened it to her ear. “Can I get a few more when we get back? Logan will need them also.”

“Sure. We had a damn jar of them made up.” Tony told her.

“Where’s the jar then? I’ll go get one now.” Logan’s deep voice broke in. “You’re right. Better to be safe than sorry and our side looks bad enough already.”

“FRIDAY? Show Logan where to go.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

“I still don’t like all of you going out without backup.” Logan grumbled. “I worry. Webs, Storm, stay sharp, damn it!”

They both nodded and Tony grinned. His Spider would do everything he could to keep them safe.

“Stay safe yourself, Logan! The crazies all keep climbing the fence to get to Mr. Stark!” Ororo fussed and Logan grinned.

“Not a problem. The cops know me now and answer pretty damn quick. No one’s gettin’ in. The bots, FRIDAY and I got it covered.”

“Boss, the limo’s out front.”

FRIDAY made short work of the drive to the Ball and far sooner than Peter would have liked, they were walking up a set of huge, marble steps to enter the building. The honor guard posted at the door saluted when Rhodes walked by with Ororo and she smiled up at him.

Peter soon lost sight of them though, as he walked with Tony, making the rounds of all of the brass at the party tonight. He was rather surprised by how many of them he now knew by name. Between the two kidnappings and all the classes being held, he’d met several hundred military members.

Thankful for all the practice he’d had in doing this over the last several months, he didn’t make a fool of himself in front of everyone. Although, he did find himself signing even more autographs. Rather embarrassing to be surrounded by Colonels and Generals and Majors, who wanted your name on some item or another. He could only glance at Tony every now and then, as the man was highly amused by the situation.

Rhodey and Ororo spent their time on the dance floor, but there was no escaping the crowd of people around Peter and Tony. They were quizzed on everything from the kidnappings, to writing code, to building tech and solutions for their problems and everything else under the sun. Peter found himself pathetically grateful when they called for dinner and the whole group started shuffling towards the tables.

Finally seated at the table, Ororo and Rhodey settled next to them and the familiar faces of General Ramsey and two of his Colonels sat down across from them.

“Still doing okay, Peter?” Tony asked him quietly.

“I am. But wow, you’ve been doing this your entire life. I cannot even imagine.” Peter whispered back and Tony grinned.

“It’s more fun now that you’re here.”

That earned him a smile and Peter turned his attention towards the front of the long table, where a Brigadier General was about to give a speech. Just as the man stepped up onto the podium, his spider-sense exploded. Wincing, Peter stiffened up immediately as he searched the room, trying to locate the targets.

“Peter? What just happened?” Tony hissed.

“Spider-sense. Tony, there are 10 targets that just went off here in the building. Each is set behind a pillar, near the ceiling, if I’m reading it correctly. They’re spaced around the room and I’d point, but I have no idea if someone is watching.”

“How bad?” General Ramsey asked from across the table.

“Bad. They’re stationary. Bombs probably.”

Tony studied the building for a few seconds. “That would drop the entire roof on us.”

“Damn it!” Rhodey swore. “Why’s there always gotta be someone wanting to stir things up?”

“How long do we have, Peter?” Tony asked.

“Not long. Less than four minutes at a guess.”

“Does it react if you think about all of us running for the doors?” Tony asked and Peter paused before shaking his head.

“No. Let’s get out of here!”

Tony looked across the table. “General!”

“I’m on it!” He stood up and cleared his throat. “Everyone, I have just been made aware of a bomb threat. We need to all leave the building and proceed out onto the front lawn in an orderly fashion. We have less than 3 minutes to evacuate.”

There were a few questions thrown at them, but all the General had to say was that Spider-Man had given the alert. Thanks to their military training, no one panicked and they got the entire place emptied out, caterers, honor guards and all. The evening air was cool as they all huddled together on the grass, watching the building. 

Tony though… Tony was watching Peter. Ororo and Rhodey standing next to him as Peter suddenly winced. 

“Here it goes.”

There was a low rumbling boom and all the glass in the building suddenly exploded outwards, before the roof started caving in. It was oddly like watching in slow motion as the entire building simply folded in on itself, a huge cloud of dirt and debris rolling across the lawn where they were standing.

Silence fell across the stunned crowd and Peter swallowed hard. “Well, I’d much rather be out here than in there. How about you?”

Ororo swept in and hugged Peter tightly. “You saved many lives tonight Peter. Excellent job!”

Around them, the crowd all started talking at once as they tried to come to grips with how close they’d been to dying tonight.

General Ramsey came over, trailing the Brigadier and entire armada of high ranking officers. He stopped in front of Peter and stuck his hand out. Peter reached out to shake it and the General pulled him into a hug.

“You saved all of us tonight, Peter. There aren’t enough words for what you’ve done here.”

“You’re a hero! We would have died!” “Thanks, Spider-Man!” Everyone around them started trying to thank him all at once and Peter blushed in embarrassment.

“You played a big part, General. They all listened to you and evacuated.” Peter said quickly and the man laughed.

“Only after I told them that Spider-Man had given the warning. You see son, all officers in all branches of the service have now seen the videos of both your kidnappings. We all know just how damn accurate your precognition can be, son.”

The Brigadier stepped forward and held out his hand. “Thank you, Mr. Parker.” He shook Peter’s hand and moved over to Tony. “Mr. Stark, I’d like to get in touch with you. I think we should go forward with a press campaign. There is no more reason to fear superhumans and mutants than there is any other wacko with a weapon out there. There are good and bad people everywhere.”

Tony smiled. “Call me. We’ll talk it over.”

“I will. Believe me.” Behind them, they could hear sirens going off and the Brigadier looked over his shoulder. “Looks like right now though, we’ll be talking to the police.”

 

END


End file.
